Nordic Consortium for China Studies
Popular Religion in Contemporary China
Intensive course, Zhejiang University
General outline Over the past three decades, China has seen a surprising surge of interest in religion and witnessed the rebuilding of lineage halls, the construction of temples and churches, the public celebration of temple fairs, and the emergence of a broad variety of religious organisations. This course is an introduction to the study of popular religion in contemporary China. Reading texts by anthropologists, political scientists, and religious scholars, the students will gain an understanding of the role of popular religion in contemporary Chinese society and become familiar with scholarly debates on the relation between state and religion, on practices of mediumship and healing, and on the material culture of religion. An excursion to one or more religious sites in the vicinity will allow the students to experience popular religion as an everyday practice, and they will be required to devise and carry out a mini research project on a topic of their choice on this excursion, a project which will then form the basis for a
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Nordic Consortium for China Studies verbal presentation of findings and methods and a final essay. The overarching theme of the course is popular religion but the students are encouraged to explore specific sub-themes through further reading and through observations and interviews during the field trip. The course is planned as a one-week intensive course for Scandinavian MA students in China Studies, and counts as a total of 5 ECTS (135 hours). It will take place at a Chinese university campus and will be co-taught by one teacher from the Chinese university and one teacher from a Scandinavian university. The languages of instruction will be Chinese and English.
Prerequisites
It is assumed that students: •
Read and speak Modern Standard Chinese (Putonghua) at a level corresponding to the requirements for a BA degree in China Studies at a Scandinavian university
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Have comprehensive knowledge of Chinese culture and society
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Have basic knowledge of qualitative research methods
Aims of the course
The main aims of the course are that the participants acquire: •
Knowledge of popular religion as an academic subject matter and an everyday practice in contemporary China
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Skills in reading and discussing academic and non-academic texts in English and Chinese as well as skills in gathering information in a Chinese setting, both online and through observation, participant observation, and interviews.
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Competencies in planning, executing, and reporting research projects that combine multiple forms of data.
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Nordic Consortium for China Studies
Course outline
Time
Theme/Title
Material Day One
Morning session
Welcome and Presentation Aims and structure of the course. Introduction to Popular Religion Discussion: Students’ prior knowledge and experiences with popular religion in China. Lunch break
Chau, 2011. Goossaert, 2005. Clart, 2012. Weller, 2014.
Afternoon Lecture: Presentation of the fieldsite for the excursion. session
Exercise: Finding online information in Chinese about the fieldsite.
Day Two Morning session
Lecture: Popular Religion and the State
Lunch break
Afternoon Lecture: Healing and Divination session
Cline, 2010. Fan, Lizhu. 2003. Penny, 2008. Bunkenborg, Mikkel. 2014.
Ashiwa & Wank. 2009. Chau, 2005. Yang, 2006.
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Nordic Consortium for China Studies
Day Three Morning session
Lecture: Religion & Material Culture
Lunch break
Blake, 2011. Bunkenborg, 2015. Dutton, 2004. Steinmüller, 2010.
Afternoon session
Planning the excursion: Students form teams of two and decide on particular issues they will attempt to explore during the excursion. Relating the issue to the texts they have read, they will draft plans describing how they intend to learn about their chosen topic in this particular fieldsite through observation, participant observation and interviews, which informants they will look for, which questions they will ask, and an outline of the Chinese vocabulary they will need.
Day Four Morning session
Excursion to a temple and/or other sites related to popular religion
Lunch break
Exercise: Students analyse observations and interviews and prepare presentations for day five.
Afternoon session
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Nordic Consortium for China Studies
Day Five Morning session
Presentations: Each team is given approximately 20 minutes to present their findings and their reflections on the methods they used.
Lunch break
Afternoon session
Workshop: Each student produces a plan for a paper based on texts, observations and interviews. These are presented and discussed in plenum and at end of the day, every student will have an outline of the paper they will later hand in. Wrap up and evaluation of the course.
Learning activities The course combines lectures, seminars and group discussions held in English and Chinese with a field trip. Students will be given assignments to prepare before each respective class session. Based on the course and the field trip, the students are required to present ideas for a final paper on the last day of the course and to hand in a final essay at a later date via email. Attendance is compulsory according to the regulations of the Chinese university and students are expected to come to classes well prepared. Students will receive the list of readings about one month before the course starts and are expected to have read at least the mandatory texts before the beginning of the course.
Course requirements/ examination The students’ performance during the course, including active class attendance, written assignments, and the final paper, count towards the final grade for the course. Exam papers must be 8-10 pages including references and notes (2300 characters with spaces per page). The paper has to include: a) an introduction presenting the topic and theoretical approaches; b) a brief section presenting the selection of written texts relevant for the topic; c) 2-3 sections presenting and discussing the data and the topic; d) a section titled “conclusion” with
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Nordic Consortium for China Studies the 1-3 main results (conclusions) of the paper; e) a “list of references” that include at least 5 academic sources that are used in the paper. Only papers including all of these points will be able to pass, and papers will be graded according to the Chinese university’s point scale.
Course Material Ashiwa, Yoshiko, and David L. Wank. 2009. "Making religion, making the state in modern China : an introductory essay." In Making religion, making the state : the politics of religion in modern China, edited by Yoshiko Ashiwa and David L. Wank, 1-21. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. Blake, C. Fred. 2011. "Lampooning the Paper Money Custom in Contemporary China." The Journal of Asian Studies 70, no. 02: 449-469. Bunkenborg, Mikkel. 2014. "From Metaphors of Empire to Enactments of State: Popular Religious Movements and Health in Rural North China." Positions 22, no. 3: 573-602. Bunkenborg, Mikkel. 2015. "Incense and the Magic of Disappearances." In Between Magic and Rationality. On the Limits of Reason in the Modern World, edited by Vibeke Steffen, Steffen Jöhncke and Kirsten Marie Raahauge, 175-195. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum. Chau, Adam Yuet. 2005. "The Politics of Legitimation and the Revival of Popular Religion in Shaanbei, North-Central China." Modern China 31, no. 2: 236-278. Chau, Adam Yuet. 2011. "Modalities of Doing Religion." In Chinese religious life, edited by David A. Palmer, Glenn Landes Shive and Philip L. Wickeri, 67-84. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clart, Philip. 2012. "Chinese Popular Religion." In The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions, edited by Randall Laird Nadeau, 219-235. Malden, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Cline, Erin M. 2010. "Female Spirit Mediums and Religious Authority in Contemporary Southeastern China." Modern China 36, no. 5: 520-555. Dutton, Michael. 2004. "Mango Mao: Infections of the Sacred." Public Culture 16 (2):161-188. Fan, Lizhu. 2003. "The Cult of the Silkworm Mother as a Core of Local Community Religion in a North China Village: Field Study in Zhiwuying Baoding, Hebei." China Quarterly 174:359-372. Goossaert, Vincent. 2005. "The Concept of Religion in China and the West." Diogenes 52 (1):13-20. Penny, Benjamin. 2008. "Animal Spirits, Karmic Retribution, Falungong, and the State." In Chinese Religiosities : Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation, edited by Mayfair Mei-hui Yang, 135-154. Berkeley: University of California Press. Steinmüller, Hans. 2010. "How popular Confucianism became embarrassing: On the spatial and moral center of the house in rural China." Focaal 2010 (58): 81-96. Weller, Robert P. 2014. "The Politics of Increasing Religious Diversity in China." Daedalus - American Academy of Arts and Sciences 143 (2):135-144.
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Nordic Consortium for China Studies Yang, Fenggang. 2006. "The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion in China." Sociological Quarterly 47 (1):93-122.
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