Despite having been sharply criticized and ridiculed on ecological and/or theological grounds by people both in and outside the Buddhist community for decades, fangsheng (animal release) is still one of the most popular devotional acts among Chinese Buddhists, especially urban Buddhists. In fact, to the dismay of those enlightened critics, this controversial practice may well be one of the key factors that have made Buddhism the fastest-growing religion in China in recent decades. This paper thus attempts to explain why Chinese urban Buddhists persistently favor fangsheng. It begins with a brief review of the process by which famous Buddhist monks and pious emperors constructed the classical form of animal release in China from the late fifth through the eleventh century. Then it describes several styles of animal release that are currently practiced in Nanjing, especially those being reformed and enthusiastically organized by numerous jushi (Buddhist laity) groups. After that, it discusses why fangsheng has become one of the most popular devotional practices in Nanjing. Based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, the author argues that the most remarkable advantage of fangsheng is the dramatic, sensational effects it can produce easily and reliably, which may explain why it is an invincible method of Buddhist spiritual cultivation. More precisely, fangsheng in practice is the enactment of a sensational ritual drama that represents the pilgrimage of all mortals from hell (the marketplace) to heaven (a park). Many practitioners and attendants appear to be deeply moved by witnessing the creatures chosen for fangsheng, onto which those practitioners often project themselves, saved from torture and tragic death.

Open Access December 30, 2015

Faith as Lived in Private Life and Public Space: A Lisu Village Christian Church in Fugong / 私人生活、公共空间与信仰实践——以云南福贡基督教会为中心的考察

Huang Jianbo, Liu Qi

Page range: 164-178

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Abstract

In the Lisu village of Fugong, Yunnan, Christianity does not merely serve as a theological resource with which villagers seek personal redemption. It also saturates every corner of their private and family lives, engaging directly with various issues including important ceremonies of life and other daily matters. More important, as a community itself, the local church becomes a public place. It is also an organizational foundation and resource for communal interaction and rural governance.

Open Access December 30, 2015

Underground Railroads of Christian Conversion: North Korean Migrants and Evangelical Missionary Networks in Northeast Asia / 皈依基督教的地下通道: 北朝鲜1移民与东北亚的新教传教

Jin-Heon Jung

Page range: 179-203

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Abstract

This article examines the processes by which North Korean migrants encounter and convert to Christianity in the Sino-Korean border area and en route to South Korea. Since the mid-1990s when North Korea began suffering from severe famine, many North Koreans began crossing the border into China in search of food. It is the Korean Protestant Church that not only established the Underground Railroad through which many of the border crossers travel via China to South Korea, but that also provides various religious and non-religious services for North Koreans when they settle in South Korea. With this “Christian passage,” as I call it, and settlement, a startling 80–90 percent of the migrants identify themselves as Protestant after reaching South Korea. My ethnography asserts that their conversion should not be considered as merely a matter of a liberal individual’s ontological transformation without also considering both institutional interventions (missionary networks) and specific geopolitical conditions (the Cold War, famine, and globalization). I argue that Christianity serves as a window through which we can better understand how the complex ideological, political, and cultural tensions (i.e., nationalism, imperialism, freedom, human rights, etc.) all meet in the reconfiguration of the migrants’ identities. More precisely, through an examination of conversion as a cultural project joined with citizen making, this article sheds light on the ways in which religion both creates and demolishes North Korean-ness in favor of a national future—a Christianized reunified nation.

Open Access December 30, 2015

Variations of Tradition: Re-creating Yi Families in the Pearl River Delta / 流变的传统：珠三角的彝人家支再造

Liu Dongxu

Page range: 204-218

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Abstract

The family is the most essential socialorganization form of traditional Yi people. With a huge number of Yi people flowing to the Pearl River delta for work, such families and their meetings have been emerging and developing in this region. A new kind of family system, based on the foreman model, represents the effect of the temporary labor market on Yi social relations. It also shows that Yi people are strengthening their social unity in response to unstable intra- or intergroup tensions by resisting the further marketization of labor forces. Therefore, the social connotation of Yi families and family meetings in the Pearl River delta has largely broken away from that in traditional Yi residential areas and is instead something new.

Open Access December 30, 2015

The Concept of Social Network in Chinese Christianity / 中国基督教的社会网络概念

Jie Kang

Page range: 219-232

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Open Access December 30, 2015

Female-Christ Warriors: A Study of the Church of Almighty God / 征战的女基督

Liu Ling

Page range: 233-249

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Abstract

Previous research has paid much attention to the conflicts between the Church of Almighty God and its exterior world but ignored the fact that the relationship between them is not always in high tension and that the church is only selectively destructive of the exterior world. By analyzing the relationships between its members and between CAG and other churches and society, this paper discusses how CAG uses high-tension practices, mainly expressed as rejecting and vandalizing the exterior world, as a development strategy to repudiate its background of Chinese traditional family ethics and obscure its sources in Western religions, thus also strengthening its followers’ commitment.

Volume 1 Issue 2 -

Issue of Cultural Diversity in China

Frontmatter

Introduction to the Modern Spirit of Asia / 《亚洲的现代灵性》之 导论

Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park# / 放生：在市场和公园间上演的佛法#

Abstract

Faith as Lived in Private Life and Public Space: A Lisu Village Christian Church in Fugong / 私人生活、公共空间与信仰实践——以云南福贡基督教会为中心的考察

Abstract

Underground Railroads of Christian Conversion: North Korean Migrants and Evangelical Missionary Networks in Northeast Asia / 皈依基督教的地下通道: 北朝鲜1移民与东北亚的 新教传教

Abstract

Variations of Tradition: Re-creating Yi Families in the Pearl River Delta / 流变的传统：珠三角的彝人家支再造

Abstract

The Concept of Social Network in Chinese Christianity / 中国基督教的社会网络 概念

Female-Christ Warriors: A Study of the Church of Almighty God / 征战的女基督

Abstract

Introduction to the Modern Spirit of Asia / 《亚洲的现代灵性》之导论

Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park^# / 放生：在市场和公园间上演的佛法^#

Underground Railroads of Christian Conversion: North Korean Migrants and Evangelical Missionary Networks in Northeast Asia / 皈依基督教的地下通道: 北朝鲜1移民与东北亚的新教传教

The Concept of Social Network in Chinese Christianity / 中国基督教的社会网络概念