Everyday religiosity in the state sphere：Folk beliefs and practices in a Chinese state-run orphanage
国家领域的日常宗教性：一家国营孤儿院的民间信仰实践
Linliang Qian
Australian National University, Australia
Linliang Qian, Australian Centre on China in the World, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, Building 188, Fellows Lane, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. Email:
linliang.qian@anu.edu.au
Abstract
The religious sector in contemporary China is often portrayed as resisting or negotiating with an interventionist state in order to survive or protect its autonomy. This article, however, shows how it enters the state sphere and imbues the presumed state agents. By exploring folk beliefs and practices in a state-run orphanage (such as philanthropists’ activities, which they related to accumulation of karmic merits, childcare workers’ discourses, conduct associated with predestined relationships and baby ghosts, and institution officials’ preoccupation with palmistry, fortune telling and karmic retribution), and the impact of folk belief and practices on the working of the state apparatus, this study aims to enrich current scholarship by looking at state–religion interactions beyond the religious sphere and also reversing the image of Chinese religions as merely passive or reactive actors.
Keywords：state–religion relations；popular religion；folk beliefs；orphanages welfare institutions
原文下载链接：
http://cin.sagepub.com/content/e ... 3X15624676.abstract
