ICS Public Lecture – Prof. Elena Valussi: Hybridity, Flexibility and Accommodation in Sichuan Religious Spaces: Reflections on Past and Recent Fieldwork

Abstract:

In investigating the religious traditions of Sichuan, the diversity and hybridity of religious practices expressed in texts and rituals have emerged. This talk will address parallel questions of hybridity and religious identity through the historical analysis of religious spaces which have or still are shifting between religious identities, or which have become secular spaces. Starting from her work on the Chunyang Guan 純陽觀 in Xinjin 新津, the Speaker will then expand on hybrid religious sites encountered in recent fieldwork in Sichuan. Examples of Daoist, Buddhist, three religions sites, as well as multivalent sites like native place associations (huiguan會館) will be discussed, in order to shine a light on the continuous transformation of religious sites and the traces these shifts leave within the sites themselves.

Speaker:

Prof. Elena Valussi is a senior Lecturer in the History Department at Loyola University Chicago. Her research and publications revolve around the intersection of gender, religion and body practices, Republican discourses on gender and religion, the intellectual history of Daoism, and spirit writing in Chinese history. Her most recent articles are “Daoist Sexual Practices for Health and Immortality for Women” (2022); “Men Built Religion, Women Made It Superstitious: Gender and Superstition in Republican China” (2020); “Gender as a Useful Category of Analysis in Chinese Religions: With Two Case Studies from the Republican Period” (2019). She is the vice President of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, and also the co-director of a research project on religious diversity in Sichuan province funded by the CCK foundation.

Date: 7 November 2023 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:30pm – 6:00pm (4:00pm: Tea Reception)
Venue: User Education Room, G/F, University Library, CUHK
Language: English
Registration: Click here
Enquiry: 3943 0405/ ics-activities@cuhk.edu.hk

公開講座——阿琳娜教授：四川宗教空間之混合性、靈活性及包容性：今昔田野考察之反思

日    　期：2023年11月7日（星期二）
時    　間：下午4時30分至6時正 （下午4時設茶點招待）
地    　點：香港中文大學大學圖書館地下研討室
講    　者：阿琳娜教授
語    　言：英文
報名連結：按此
查    　詢：3943 0405/ ics-activities@cuhk.edu.hk

詳情請參閱海報（只提供英文版本）