Alvin Eng Hui Lim - Digital Spirits in Religion and Media

Alvin Eng Hui Lim is currently Assistant Professor with the Theatre Studies programme at the National University of Singapore. He is also Deputy Director and Technology and Online Editor (Mandarin) of the Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive (A|S|I|A,), and Editor of Theatre Makers Asia Archive. He has published on Singapore theatre, religious practices, and digital archiving. He is also a member of the After Performance working group, which explores experimental modes of writing on performance and co-authorship.

Edited by Jolyon Mitchell, Stewart Hoover and Jenna Supp-Montgomerie

Religion and Commodification

Merchandizing Diasporic Hinduism

Vineeta Sinha

Japanese Religions on the Internet

Innovation, Representation, and Authority

Edited by Erica Baffelli, Ian Reader and Birgit Staemmler

Religion and Hip Hop

Monica R. Miller

Material Culture and Asian Religions

Text, Image, Object

Edited by Benjamin J. Fleming and Richard D. Mann

Religion, Media, and Social Change

Edited by Kennet Granholm, Marcus Moberg and Sofia Sj

Media and New Religions in Japan

Erica Baffelli

Religion and Media in China

Insights and Case Studies from the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong

Edited by Stefania Travagnin

Creating Church Online

Ritual, Community and New Media

Tim Hutchings

Digital Spirits in Religion and Media

Possession and Performance

Alvin Eng Hui Lim

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/religion/series/RRRMC

Alvin Eng Hui Lim

First published 2019

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2019 Alvin Eng Hui Lim

The right of Alvin Eng Hui Lim to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN: 978-0-8153-9332-0 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-351-18887-6 (ebk)

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Writing can be the most solitude of a researchers paths, but I was privileged to have met and enjoyed the company of many who were part of this journey with me. This book started out as my PhD thesis and has evolved into its current shape. It wouldnt have existed without my thesis supervisors, John W. Phillips and Klina Gotman. I owe them all my deepest thanks. John gave me the freedom to explore my often-random ideas while gently offering guidance along the way. I was challenged, I struggled, I waited for inspiration and John waited with me. Klina provided this work with so much nourishment and inspiration. Her words of encouragement have been a constant spur for me to write better.

At the National University of Singapore (NUS), my heartfelt thanks go to Yong Li Lan, John Richardson, Philip Holden, Edna Lim, Graham Wolfe and Miguel Escobar. This book would not have been possible without the generosity and sustained encouragements. To my colleagues and teachers at the Department of English Language and Literature, thank you for supporting and teaching me all these years from the moment I first walked through the corridors in 2003 as an undergraduate. To the thesis committee who supported my work from early on, Tania Roy and Yung Sai-Shing; to my former graduate supervisor, Paul Rae, thank you for giving me a solid foundation in theatre and years of working together at Spell#7. At Kings College London, I thank Alan Read for supporting my research project when I applied for the joint-PhD programme.

To my many colleagues, mentors, students and friends, thank you especially to Ella Parry-Davis, Felipe Cervera and Matthew Yoxall, who are my fellow ensemble members of the After Performance group, for being awesome and I cannot wait for many more years of collaboration and friendship; Joshua Edelman and Kim Skjoldager-Nielsen, co-convenors of the International Federation for Theatre Research working group, Performance, Religion and Spirituality, and others in the group who offered friendship and advice: Anne Maysa, Anton Krueger, Claire Maria Chambers, Daniel Pl, David Mason, Hannah McClure, Katharina Pewny, Ilaria Salonna and Silvia Battista.

In the final stages of writing this book, I did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH). My time spent there was enriched by the spirits, people, animals and nature that surrounded me. I would like to especially thank Jo Shaw, Donald Ferguson, Laura Smith, Maud Berthomier, Michael Carroll, Stefano DallAglio, Sarah Daw, Annick Ettlin, Ellen Filor, Ben Fletcher-Watson, Melinda Gann Hall, Norman Ingram, Maximilian Jaede, Stefanie Kurt, Marja Lahelma, Rebekah Lee, Alisa Mandrigin, Benjamin Pickford, Avishek Ray, Papia Sengupta, Martine Veldhuizen, Liv Helene Willumsen, Martha McGill and Peta Freestone. I have learnt much from my fellows by showing me a diverse spectrum of intellectual perspectives. I want to also thank the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh for hosting me with so much hospitality and for supporting this work. It was there that I met Jolyon Mitchell, who encouraged me to submit this script to the Routledge Research in Religion, Media and Culture book series. I would like to thank him, along with the other series editors, Stewart Hoover, Jenna Supp-Montgomerie and formerly David Morgan, who offered their much appreciated support and guidance in the final stages. I owe thanks to them for seeing the book through to its publication. I would also like to thank my editors at Routledge, Joshua Wells and Jack Boothroyd, for supporting the publication of this book.