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

这个项目调查了一部分中国人--不断壮大的职业中产阶级--是如何从事宗教活动的，并询问他们是如何利用这些活动来理解自己在国家和全球社会中的成功和地位的。为什么一个经历了强制世俗化的快速现代化的社会，即使面对政府对宗教的持续控制，现在仍然充斥着宗教活动？宗教的这种增长在人们的日常生活中究竟是什么样子的，他们如何利用这些宗教习俗、信仰和身份来创造意义和建立社区？通过对标准的宗教社会学理论以及宗教的概念化和衡量方法的批判，该项目使用宗教实践的视角，独特地分析了超越既定宗教界限的中国宗教实践方式。数据收集包括社区观察和对以下社区的个人的采访：自我认同的佛教徒、新教徒、天主教徒、穆斯林，以及中国东部沿海一个地级市的非宗教人士。使用定性方法(民族志、深度访谈和照片启发访谈)相结合的方法，本项目将通过考察中国社会世界性部门的宗教实践，同时也分析中国人超越既定宗教界限的独特宗教实践方式，来回答研究问题。这项研究还将考察这些人生活中的关键紧张局势，以及他们在快速的社会、文化和经济变化的背景下，如何利用宗教来解决实际问题、创造意义和追求幸福。这个项目将加深我们对当代中国社会和活着的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.