Making Religion, Making the State: The Politics of Religion in Modern China

by Yoshiko Ashiwa (Editor), David Wank (Editor)

Making Religion, Making the State combines cutting-edge perspectives on religion with rich empirical data to offer a challenging new argument about the politics of religion in modern China. The volume goes beyond extant portrayals of the opposition of state and religion to emphasize their mutual constitution. It examines how the modern category of "religion" is enacted and implemented in specific locales and contexts by a variety of actors from the late nineteenth century until the present. With chapters written by experts on Buddhism, Protestantism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam, and more, this volume will appeal across the social sciences and humanities to those interested in politics, religion, and modernity in China.

Genres: China, Religion, School, Politics

294 pages, Paperback

First published March 24, 2009

Reviews

[Patty Chang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really excellent, eerily parallels my thinking which is why I like it so much. Takes an institutional approach to understanding religion in China, starts from the idea that the making of the modern state lead to a concomitant rise in understanding religion as individual belief. Points out that the state has always been involved in defining religion in China (and most other civilizations for that matter-western Europe and the US after the mid 1700's being the notable exception.). Has a bunch of ethnographic articles analysing local religion as processes of making meaning, goes beyond state vs. individual; examines how numerous actors, routines, etc. contribute to defining and creating religion in various contexts. Introductory chapter is a nice analytical piece.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, it's an awesome book if you wanna to know something about religion in China. Among the articles, I find Dru Gladey(?)'s article on Chinese Islam in XingJiang very helpful: it parses out the nuanced differences as well as relations among religion, ethnicity, and citizenship. It's a messy one but Dru did a great job in teasing out all the important factors. Ashiwa's introduction is top quality as well, an in-depth analysis of politics and religions in their co-constitutive formations.
I will resort to this book later (especially the bibliographies) for further information.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serious scholarship is on display here. Sometimes the authors get carried away into obscurity or overreach by that sublime blend of knowledge, concepts, eloquence and big thoughts that the best academics enjoy. However, the insights into Islam in China, various aspects of Buddhism and Christianity, into state policy, and into the deep, almost ineffable complexities of "religion" as a socio-politico-individual discourse and practice are high quality.