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

本研究采用质的田野研究方法，探讨大陆佛教尼姑中国是否以及如何参与当前佛教未来发展的话语。这一论述关系到佛教应该走的方向。它必须现代化才能更多地参与到当今社会中来吗？或者它应该保留自己的传统？这意味着要与世隔绝，严格遵守修行规则，这是尼姑通常会做的事情。由于完全受封，中国的尼姑比南亚和东南亚的尼姑有更高的地位。然而，中国佛教霸权的性别话语似乎将他们限制在传统的女性形象上。因此，本项目关注以下研究问题：修女作为具体主体受到霸权性别话语的质询，试图阻止她们影响社会，修女们是如何反应的？他们构建了哪些身份？为了在佛教发展的话语中施加影响，他们采取了哪些策略？该项目有条不紊地将中国中心一个大型尼姑寺的田野民族志与佛教话语分析结合起来。良好的人脉使得对中国修女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.