Buddhist Nuns in the Discourse on the Future of Buddhism in Contemporary China

这篇论述涉及到佛教应该走的方向。为了更多地融入当今社会，它必须现代化吗？还是应该保留自己的传统？这意味着远离世俗，严格遵守寺院规则，这是尼姑们通常应该做的。由于她们是完全受戒的，中国的尼姑比南亚和东南亚的尼姑地位更高。然而，中国佛教的性别霸权话语似乎将她们局限在传统的女性形象中。因此，本项目聚焦于以下研究问题：修女们如何应对被试图阻止她们影响社会的霸权性性别话语追问为具体主体的方式？他们构建了哪些身份？他们采取了哪些策略来影响佛教发展的话语？该项目有条不紊地将中国中部一个大型尼姑庵的田野民族志与佛教话语分析结合起来。建立良好的联系使得对中国尼姑进行定性采访成为可能，这可以在没有翻译帮助的情况下完成。

This study employs qualitative field research to investigate whether and how Buddhist nuns in Mainland China participate in the current discourse on the future development of Buddhism. This discourse concerns the direction Buddhism should take. Must it be modernized in order to engage more in present-day society? Or should it preserve its traditions? This means to stay secluded from the world and strictly observe monastic rules, which nuns are generally expected to do. Since they are fully ordained, Buddhist nuns in China have a higher status than nuns in South and Southeast Asia. However, the hegemonic gender discourse of Chinese Buddhism seems to confine them to a traditional image of women. Therefore, this project focuses on the following research questions: How do the nuns react to the way they are interpellated as concrete subjects by the hegemonic gender discourse which tries to keep them from influencing society? Which identities do they construct? Which strategies do they pursue to wield influence within the discourse on the development of Buddhism? Methodically, the project combines field ethnography in a large nunnery in Central China with the analysis of Buddhist discourses. Well-established contacts made it possible to conduct qualitative interviews with Chinese nuns, which could be done without translation aid.