Religion and Mobility in a Globalising Asia
This volume examines the dynamic, mutually constitutive, relationship between religion and mobility in the contemporary era of Asian globalisation in which an increasing number of people have been displaced, forcefully or voluntarily, by an expanding global market economy and lasting regional political strife. Seven case studies provide up-to-date ethnographic perspectives on the translocal/transnational dimension of religion and the religious/spiritual aspect of movement. The chapters draw on research into Buddhism, Islam, Chinese qigong, Christianity and communal ritual as these religious beliefs and practices move in and across Singapore, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the upper Mekong region, the Thai-Burma border, the Middle East and France. With these diverse and rich ethnographic cases on translocal/transnational Asian religious practices and subjectivities, the book transcends the conventional nation-state centered framework to look into how mobile religious agents are redefining boundaries of local, regional, national identities and recreating translocal, transnational and interregional connectivity. In so doing, it illustrates the importance of promoting a dynamic understanding of Asia not just as a geopolitical entity but as an ongoing social and religious formation in late modernity.
This book was previously published as a special issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology.
Sin Wen Lau is a Lecturer at UniSIM College, SIM University. Before joining UniSIM College, she was a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.
Nanlai Cao is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Religious Theory, Renmin University of China in Beijing. He is the author of Constructing Chinas Jerusalem: Christians, Power, and Place in Contemporary Wenzhou (Stanford University Press, 2011).
Religion and Mobility in a Globalising Asia
New Ethnographic Explorations
Edited by
Sin Wen Lau and Nanlai Cao
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN, UK
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2014 The Australian National University
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-71655-0
Typeset in Garamond
by Taylor & Francis Books
Publishers Note
The publisher accepts responsibility for any inconsistencies that may have arisen during the conversion of this book from journal articles to book chapters, namely the possible inclusion of journal terminology.
Disclaimer
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.
Contents
Nanlai Cao and Sin Wen Lau
Prasert Rangkla
Wasan Panyagaew
Shu-Ling Yeh
Chee-Han Lim
Tiffany Cone
Sin Wen Lau
Nanlai Cao
Nicholas Tapp
The following chapters were originally published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, volume 14, issue 1 (February 2013). When citing this material, please use the original page numbering for each article, as follows:
Chapter 2
Refuge and Emplacement through Buddhism: Karen Refugees and Religious Practices in a Northwestern Border Town of Thailand
Prasert Rangkla
Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, volume 14, issue 1
(February 2013) pp. 822
Chapter 3
Remembering with Respect: History, Social Memory and the Cross-Border Journeys of a Charismatic Lue Monk
Wasan Panyagaew
Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, volume 14, issue 1
(February 2013) pp. 2340
Chapter 4
Pig Sacrifices, Mobility and the Ritual Recreation of Community Among the Amis of Taiwan
Shu-Ling Yeh
Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, volume 14, issue 1
(February 2013) pp. 4156
Chapter 5
Migration as a Spiritual Pathway: Narratives of Chinese Falungong Practitioners in Singapore
Chee-Han Lim
Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, volume 14, issue 1
(February 2013) pp. 5770
Chapter 7
Mobility, Christianity and Belonging: Reflections of an Overseas Chinese Expatriate Wife in Shanghai
Sin Wen Lau
Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, volume 14, issue 1
(February 2013) pp. 7184
Chapter 8
Renegotiating Locality and Morality in a Chinese Religious Diaspora: Wenzhou Christian Merchants in Paris, France
Nanlai Cao
Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, volume 14, issue 1
(February 2013) pp. 85101
Please direct any queries you may have about the citations to clsuk.permissions@cengage.com
Nanlai Cao is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Religious Theory, Renmin University of China in Beijing.
Tiffany Cone is a Doctoral Candidate based in the Department of Anthropology, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.
Sin Wen Lau is a Lecturer at UniSim College, SIM University. Before joining UniSIM College, she was a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity.
Chee-Han Lim is a Lecturer at UniSIM College, SIM University.
Wasan Panyagaew is Head of the Centre for Research and Academic Service, Faculty of Social Sciences, and a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Chiang Mai University, Thailand.
Prasert Rangkla is a Lecturer at Thammasat University.
Nicholas Tapp is Director of the Institute of Anthropology, East China Normal University, Shanghai, and Professor Emeritus at the Australian National University.
Shu-Ling Yeh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and Cultural Affairs, National Taitung University.
With the exception of the Introduction, the Epilogue and the contribution from Tiffany Cone, the ethnographic chapters collected herein were first presented as a panel at the 2011 Association for Asian Studies and International Convention of Asia Scholars Joint Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. We are grateful for funding support from the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong that made our panel possible. The panel included six anthropologists based in Australia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany, and a discussant, Nicholas Tapp of East China Normal University/The Australian National University.
