BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//IHSS - ECPv6.17.0//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:IHSS X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://ihss.hku.hk X-WR-CALDESC:Events for IHSS REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Asia/Hong_Kong BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0800 TZOFFSETTO:+0800 TZNAME:HKT DTSTART:20170101T000000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180417T163000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180417T180000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T175517Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102421Z UID:86793-1523982600-1523988000@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Digging Deep: Anthropological Encounters with the Zambian Copperbelt DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/digging-deep-anthropological-encounters-with-the-zambian-copperbelt/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/lecture-by-professor-ellen-hertz-20180417-1920x1080-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180410T163000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180410T180000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T174818Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102420Z UID:86786-1523377800-1523383200@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Acting for the “Public Good” and Tributary Social Reproduction in a Former Emigrant Village of Shenzhen DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/acting-for-the-public-good-and-tributary-social-reproduction-in-a-former-emigrant-village-of-shenzhen/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180322T180000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180322T193000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T180210Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102421Z UID:86809-1521741600-1521747000@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Why Empire? Empire as a Topic in World History DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/why-empire-empire-as-a-topic-in-world-history/ CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180322T100000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180322T120000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T181253Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102443Z UID:86823-1521712800-1521720000@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Egg and Stone (雞蛋和石頭) DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/egg-and-stone-%e9%9b%9e%e8%9b%8b%e5%92%8c%e7%9f%b3%e9%a0%ad/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/screening-of-egg-and-stone-20180322-1920x1080-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180321T170000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180321T183000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T180629Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102441Z UID:86816-1521651600-1521657000@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:“Suicide” or Salvation: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Debate in Interwar Hong Kong DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/suicide-or-salvation-margaret-sanger-and-the-birth-control-debate-in-interwar-hong-kong/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180320T163000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180320T180000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T181817Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102443Z UID:86836-1521563400-1521568800@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Politics and Scientific Change in Dynastic China DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/politics-and-scientific-change-in-dynastic-china/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mmea-lecture-by-professor-dagmar-schaefer-20180320-1920x1080-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180320T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180320T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T182328Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102444Z UID:86855-1521547200-1521550800@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:“Ordinary Language” as Legal Fiction DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/ordinary-language-as-legal-fiction/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180313T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180313T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T182847Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102444Z UID:86862-1520942400-1520946000@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Sexuality\, Intimacy and Venereal Disease Control during the Occupation of Japan\, 1945 – 1952 DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/sexuality-intimacy-and-venereal-disease-control-during-the-occupation-of-japan-1945-1952/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180228T173000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180228T190000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T183656Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102444Z UID:86870-1519839000-1519844400@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:The Ethics of Mastery in Global Perspective: Skill and Trust among Artisans in Bangkok DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/the-ethics-of-mastery-in-global-perspective-skill-and-trust-among-artisans-in-bangkok/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mmea-lecture-by-professor-michael-herzfeld-20180228-1920x1080-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180226T160000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180226T173000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T184700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102445Z UID:86893-1519660800-1519666200@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:The World in Guangzhou: Africans and Other Foreigners in South China’s Global Marketplace DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/the-world-in-guangzhou-africans-and-other-foreigners-in-south-chinas-global-marketplace/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180213T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180213T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T184256Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102445Z UID:86886-1518523200-1518526800@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Unconditional Hospitality? Translation\, Travel and Telling Tales DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/unconditional-hospitality-translation-travel-and-telling-tales/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180212T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180212T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T185509Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102445Z UID:86900-1518436800-1518440400@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Interactions Between Christianity and Local Folk Religions in 19th and 20th Century China DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/interactions-between-christianity-and-local-folk-religions-in-19th-and-20th-century-china/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180130T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180130T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T190549Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102446Z UID:86907-1517313600-1517317200@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Industrializing the Chinese Countryside in Representational and Aesthetic Forms: A Socialist Fantasia of Human Creativity DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/industrializing-the-chinese-countryside-in-representational-and-aesthetic-forms-a-socialist-fantasia-of-human-creativity/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180123T160000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180123T173000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T191933Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102446Z UID:86916-1516723200-1516728600@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:The Spiritual Practice of Orthodoxy (東正教的靈修傳統) DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/the-spiritual-practice-of-orthodoxy-%e6%9d%b1%e6%ad%a3%e6%95%99%e7%9a%84%e9%9d%88%e4%bf%ae%e5%82%b3%e7%b5%b1/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180117T170000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180117T183000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T193708Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102446Z UID:86923-1516208400-1516213800@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Controlling the Population: From Family Social Science to Family Planning in 20th Century China\, Taiwan\, and Korea DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/controlling-the-population-from-family-social-science-to-family-planning-in-20th-century-china-taiwan-and-korea/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180116T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180116T153000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T194433Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102447Z UID:86929-1516104000-1516116600@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Chinese-Style\, Japanese Green Tea for Americans: Japanese Tea Exports to the United States\, 1860 to 1890 DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/chinese-style-japanese-green-tea-for-americans-japanese-tea-exports-to-the-united-states-1860-to-1890/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180113T100000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20180113T110000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T195221Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102447Z UID:86935-1515837600-1515841200@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Past Knowledge\, Present Status and Future Threats: A Personal Reflection of the Status of Coastal Biology in China DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/past-knowledge-present-status-and-future-threats-a-personal-reflection-of-the-status-of-coastal-biology-in-china/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS,IHSS Public Lecture END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171207T090000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171207T103000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T222033Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102447Z UID:86949-1512637200-1512642600@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:How History of Technology Can Point to New Forms of Innovation Policy — Two Indian Cases DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/how-history-of-technology-can-point-to-new-forms-of-innovation-policy-two-indian-cases/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mmea-lecture-by-wiebe-bijker-20171207-960x1024-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171207T090000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171207T110000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T222756Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260420T102122Z UID:86969-1512637200-1512644400@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Making Modernity in East Asia: Technologies of Everyday Life\, 19th – 21st Centuries DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/making-modernity-in-east-asia-technologies-of-everyday-life-19th-21st-centuries/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/banner-mmea-plenary-conference-1800x577-768x246-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171130T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171130T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T223431Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102448Z UID:86989-1512043200-1512046800@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:The Radical Roots of Love: Christianity\, Communism\, and the Politics of “Love” in Modern China DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/the-radical-roots-of-love-christianity-communism-and-the-politics-of-love-in-modern-china/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171128T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171128T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T224017Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102448Z UID:86998-1511870400-1511874000@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:How Finance Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Soviet Union DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/how-finance-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-soviet-union/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171123T163000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171123T180000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T224516Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102448Z UID:87006-1511454600-1511460000@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:How Indigenous Industrialization Began in Postwar Taiwan DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/how-indigenous-industrialization-began-in-postwar-taiwan/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mmea-lecture-by-professor-wan-wen-chu-20180223-1920x1080-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171117T160000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171117T170000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T225045Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102449Z UID:87018-1510934400-1510938000@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Murmuring Days (日日喃喃) DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/murmuring-days-%e6%97%a5%e6%97%a5%e5%96%83%e5%96%83/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/screening-of-murmuring-days-20171117-1920x1080-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171115T170000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171115T183000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T225719Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102449Z UID:87028-1510765200-1510770600@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Masculine Compromise: Migration\, Family and Gender in China DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/masculine-compromise-migration-family-and-gender-in-china/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171114T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171114T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T230943Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102450Z UID:87048-1510660800-1510664400@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Building the Design and Architecture Collection at Hong Kong’s M+ Museum DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/building-the-design-and-architecture-collection-at-hong-kongs-m-museum/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171108T170000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171108T190000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T230324Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102450Z UID:87036-1510160400-1510167600@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Death by Design (科技代價) DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/death-by-design-%e7%a7%91%e6%8a%80%e4%bb%a3%e5%83%b9/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/20171108-contemporary-chinese-documentary-series-meet-the-director-death-by-design-by-director-sue-williams-banner.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171106T183000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171106T200000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T231740Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102451Z UID:87064-1509993000-1509998400@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:China’s Religious Revival DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/chinas-religious-revival/ LOCATION:MWT4\, 1/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20171106 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20171107 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T231353Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102451Z UID:87055-1509926400-1510012799@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Science and Humanities in the 21st Century DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/science-and-humanities-in-the-21st-century/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171102T163000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171102T180000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T232232Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102451Z UID:87073-1509640200-1509645600@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Learning to Labor: “Student-laborers” in the Age of Digital Capitalism DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/learning-to-labor-student-laborers-in-the-age-of-digital-capitalism/ LOCATION:Lecture Hall\, G/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:Others ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ihss.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mmea-lecture-by-professor-ngai-pun-20181102-1920x1080-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171031T120000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Hong_Kong:20171031T130000 DTSTAMP:20261029T195622 CREATED:20240725T232839Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260416T102452Z UID:87087-1509451200-1509454800@ihss.hku.hk SUMMARY:Famine in the Age of Complex Emergencies: A Brief History of Humanitarian Logistics DESCRIPTION:Language: English\n \n \n \n \n Social Sciences Chamber\, 11/F\, The Jockey Club Tower\, Centennial Campus\, The University of Hong Kong\n \n \n \n \n September 18\, 2014 6:30 pm\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABSTRACT \n \n \n \n Based on fieldwork in Wenzhou on the southeastern coast of China\, this lecture adopts the notion of “political theology” to understand the nature of political power in contemporary China\, and the religio-political imaginary of rural and small-town people whose genealogy traces back to imperial times. The lecture draws the contours of a counter-political theology of the masses which deploys the Jade Emperor and his “celestial bureaucracy” of official-like gods to represent\, confront\, and critique sovereign power in China. What people do with the gods and divine realms\, and say about them\, shows their engagement with the realities of sovereign power in their lived experiences. This vision of an alternative divine sovereign power in popular religion departs from recent Western academic critiques of China as “neo-liberal governmentality\,” which imposes Western experiences and concerns onto a very different historical and political situation. The long genealogy of gods as sacred rulers who intervene in times of crisis to save humankind may also help explain the power of the 20th century cult of Mao Zedong. Although both the Mao cult and the Jade Emperor cult share in a religious culture\, the former was borne out of crisis and led to a Bataillean excessive\, even suicidal destructiveness\, while the latter re-emerges in more stable times\, so the religious force does not overwhelm the entire social realm. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ABOUT THE SPEAKER \n \n \n \n Mayfair Yang (PhD\, UC Berkeley) is a cultural anthropologist interested in the intertwined processes of religiosity\, secularization\, and state operations in modernity\, post-colonial\, and Communist conditions. Areas of research and teaching: Chinese religions & secularization; critical theory; China Studies\, sovereignty and state power; gender and feminism; media studies; cultural approaches to political economy. Professor Yang has assumed teaching\, research\, and visiting scholar positions at the University of Michigan\, University of Chicago\, Beijing University\, Academia Sinica in Taiwan\, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton\, and the Center for the Study of World Religion at Harvard University. She was the Director of Asian Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia 2007-09. She is the author of Gifts\, Favors\, and Banquets: the Art of Social Relationships in China (Cornell University Press\, 1994)\, and editor of Spaces of Their Own: Women’s Public Sphere in Transnational China (1999) and of Chinese Religiosities: Afflictions of Modernity and State Formation (2008). She is currently completing a book manuscript on Re-enchanting Modernity: Sovereignty\, Ritual Economy\, & Indigenous Civil Society in Coastal China.   \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ORGANIZERS \n \n \n \n Contemporary China Strategic Research Theme\, The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences\, The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Previous\n \n \n Next URL:https://ihss.hku.hk/events/famine-in-the-age-of-complex-emergencies-a-brief-history-of-humanitarian-logistics/ LOCATION:Room 201\, 2/F\, Hong Kong CATEGORIES:IHSS END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR