Doctoral Dissertation Research: Religion and the Professional Middle Class in Contemporary China

这个项目探讨了如何一部分中国人口？不断壮大的专业中产阶级？参与宗教实践，并询问他们如何利用这些实践来理解他们的成功及其在国家和全球社会中的地位。为什么一个经历了强制世俗化的快速现代化社会现在充斥着宗教活动，即使面对政府对宗教的持续控制？在人们的日常生活中，宗教的这种增长实际上是什么样子的？他们如何利用这些宗教习俗、信仰和身份来创造意义并建立社区？本研究以宗教的社会学理论为基础，以宗教的概念化和测量为切入点，从宗教实践的透镜分析中国人超越宗教界限的独特宗教实践方式。数据收集包括社区观察和对来自以下社区的个人的访谈：在中国东部沿海的一个地级市，自认为是佛教徒、新教徒、天主教徒、穆斯林和非宗教人士的人。本项目将结合定性方法（民族志、深度访谈和照片启发式访谈），通过考察中国社会大都市的宗教实践，同时分析超越既定宗教界限的独特的中国宗教实践方式，来回答研究问题。该研究还将研究这一人群生活中的关键紧张关系，以及他们利用宗教来解决实际问题，创造意义，并在快速的社会，文化和经济变革的背景下追求幸福的方式。该项目将进一步加深我们对当代中国社会以及宗教在全球中产阶级中的作用的了解。

This project examines how one portion of the Chinese population?the growing professional middle class?is engaging with religious practice and asks how they are using these practices to make sense of their success and place in their country and global society. Why is a rapidly modernizing society that underwent forced secularization now awash with religious activity even in the face of continued governmental control of religion? What does this growth of religion actually look like in people's everyday lives, and how do they use these religious practices, beliefs, and identities to make meaning and build community? Drawing on critiques of thestandard sociological theories of religion and ways of conceptualizing and measuring of religion, this project uses the lens of religious practice to analyze distinctively Chinese ways of practicing religion that transcend established religious lines.The data collection involves community observations and interviews with individuals from the following communities: self-identified Buddhists, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, and the non-religious in a prefecture-level city on China's eastern seaboard. Using a combination of qualitative methods (ethnography, in-depth interviews, and photo elicitation interviews), this project will answer the research questions by examining the religious practices of the cosmopolitan sector of Chinese society while also analyzing distinctively Chinese ways of practicing religion that transcend established religious lines. The research also will examine key tensions in the lives of this population and the ways that they use religion to address practical concerns, make meaning, and pursue happiness in the context of rapid social, cultural, and economic change. This project will further our knowledge of both contemporary Chinese society and the role of lived religion among the global middle class.