Religious Philanthropy in 21st Century China: the ethical, organisational and political hybridity of a Buddhist Charity Organisation.

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This proposed PhD project sets out to study the growth of religious philanthropy in contemporary China over the first twodecades of the 21st century. By gathering rich, original data on the Loving Benevolence Foundation (LBF, pseudonym),one of China's most important Buddhist inspired charities, I seek to better understand the ethical discourses thatmanifest in LBF's members, its organisational structures, and engagements with the state. Based on fieldwork in threedifferent cities, I will attempt to engage with the emic categories employed within this complex assemblage ofphilanthropic and religious organisational structures and events that make up LBF. This fieldwork will attempt to explorethe relationship between seemingly secular structures and the core religious network that has driven LBF's growth. Indoing so this case study allows us to reflect on the meaning of religion in contemporary China, and the various waysBuddhists are redefining religious praxis, through new hybrid moral discourses and organisational structures. Themeaning of these networks and their events are flexible, accommodating many different understandings of the good, andin doing so LBF positions itself favourably in the increasingly diverse moral topography of contemporary China. Thisproject seeks to bring morality into the focus, not only as the individual's acceptance of societies rules, but also as anever evolving set of competing discourses that can tell us about contemporary China.