Professor Adam Yuet Chau

Research interests: 

Chinese religions, especially their social aspects; ritual theory; hosting as an idiom of social practice in Chinese religion and politics; forms of powerful writing; subjectification; social and cultural transformations in contemporary China; the Indonesian Chinese returnees (yin’ni guiqiao 印尼归侨) in China and Hong Kong.

As an anthropologist of Chinese religion, my scholarship is aimed at three different audiences: those scholars and students in socio-cultural anthropology, Chinese Studies and religious studies. The confluence of these three scholarly areas (i.e. socio-cultural anthropology, Chinese Studies and religious studies) is particularly productive, allowing me to synergise topical foci and theoretical approaches from diverse sources and disciplinary traditions. One of my scholarly and out-reach ambitions is to stop people from asking the question: How many religions are there in China? I would like them to ask instead: How do people 'do religion' in China?

In the mid- and late 1990s I conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Shaanbei (northern Shaanxi Province, in the Yulin and Yan’an prefectures) on the cultural, social and political aspects of the revival of popular religion in rural China during the reform period. The results of that research have been published in a monograph (Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China; 2006, Stanford University Press) and a series of journal articles and book chapters. In the past few years I have done some sporadic short-term fieldwork research in Taiwan on temple festivals. A number of research questions interest me, from the more traditional question on the social organisation of temple festivals (e.g. the idiom of rotational hosting of festivals amongst a cluster of communities) to questions on the relationship between ritual and technology, the ways in which these festivals exemplify a particular kind of sociality, the inter-meshing and articulation of multiple socio-cultural forms, etc.

Whatever else religion might be, I have found it useful to conceive religion as a social technology. It produces particular kinds of subjectivity (and sometimes not) and mobilise communal energy. One’s relationship to God (or deities, spirits, etc.) is but one idiom amongst many through which people ‘do religion’. I have also found it fruitful to compare and contrast ways of doing religion in different religious cultures. For example, I am examining the intriguing question of why it is the case that while in Chinese religious culture people host spirits (deities, ancestors and ghosts) in Christianity people are hosted by God.

One of my current projects is editing a volume entitled Chinese Religious Culture in 100 Objects. This project is under the auspices of the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions (SSCR), with contributions from an international team of more than 100 specialists on religion amongst Chinese communities. I am also completing a few book projects: monographs on hosting in Chinese political and religious culture; ghosts and ancestors; treasuring written traces (惜字紙); co-authored monographs on spirit mediumism in Shaanbei and 'spheres' (界) in China.

Some publications:

Monographs

2006  Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China, Stanford University Press

2019  Religion in China: Ties That Bind, Polity

Edited Books

2011 Religion in Contemporary China: Revitalization and Innovation, Routledge.

2026 (projected)   Chinese Religious Culture in 100 Objects, Oxford University Press.

Edited Journal Special Issue

2019 ‘Cumulus: Hoarding, Hosting, and Hospitality’ L’Homme Special Issue (co-editor)

Journal Articles (all peer-reviewed)

1. 2003 ‘Popular Religion in Shaanbei, North-Central China’. The Journal of Chinese Religions 31: 39-79.
2. 2004 ‘Hosting Funerals and Temple Festivals: Folk Event Productions in Rural China’. Asian Anthropology 3: 39-70.
3. 2005 ‘The Politics of Legitimation and the Revival of Popular Religion in Shaanbei, North-Central China’. Modern China 31 (2): 236-78. Article anthologised in Contemporary Chinese Society and Politics, edited by Andrew Kipnis, Luigi Tomba and Jonathan Unger, Routledge, 2009 (Volume 4, chapter 66; pp. 236-278).
4. 2006 ‘Superstition Specialist Households?: The Household Idiom in Chinese Religious Practices’, Minsu quyi, the Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre, and Folklore 153 (special issue on religious specialists): 157-202
5. 2007 ‘Drinking Games, Karaoke Songs, and Yangge Dances: Youth Cultural Production in Rural China’, Ethnology 45(2): 161-72.
6. 2008 ‘The Sensorial Production of the Social’, Ethnos 73(4) (special issue The Senses and the Social): 485-504.
7. 2008 ‘An Awful Mark: Symbolic Violence and Urban Renewal in Reform-Era China’, Visual Studies 23(3): 195-210.
8. 2009 ‘“做宗教”的模式’ (Modalities of Doing Religion), 温州大学学报社会科学版第22 卷第5 期 2009 年9 月 (Journal of Wenzhou University Social Sciences Vol 22, No 5 Sep, 2009: 18-27.
9. 2010 ‘Mao’s Travelling Mangoes: Food as Relic in Revolutionary China’, Past and Present (supplement 5 Relics and Remains, edited by Alexandra Walsham): 256-75.
10. 2010 ‘迷信专业户? 中国宗教实践中的家户型宗教服务供给者’ (Chinese translation of ‘Superstition Specialist Households?: The Household Idiom in Chinese Religious Practices’; in Chinese academic journal <学海>2010年03期 (Xuehai 2010, 3: 43-56)).
11. 2011 ‘Modalities of Doing Religion and Ritual Polytropy: Evaluating the Religious Market Model from the Perspective of Chinese Religious History’, Religion 41(4) (special issue Beyond the Religious Market Model): 547-568.
12. 2011 ‘做“善事”还是构建“善世”? ― 宗教入世与宗教主体化在中国’ (‘Providing Public Goods or Constructing a Good Public?: Social Engagement and Religious Subjectification in China’) (in Chinese academic journal <宗教人类学> [The Journal of the Anthropology of Religion], Vol. 3: 153-171.
13. 2012 « La channeling zone : religion populaire, État local et rites de légitimation en Chine rurale à l'ère de la réforme » (The Channeling Zone : Popular Religion, the Local State, and Rites of Legitimation in Rural China during the Reform Era). In Gradhiva: Revue d'anthropologie et d'histoire des arts, special issue on "Chines, l'État au musée," edited by Brigitte Baptandier and Anne-Christine Trémon; published by Musée du Quai Branly, No. 16: 156-177.
14. 2013 ‘Activistas Budistas Transnacionales en la Era de los Imperios’. Spanish translation of ‘Transnational Buddhist Activists in the Age of Empires’ (translated by Montserrat Crespín Perales) Entremons: The Universitat Pompeu Fabra Journal of World History (open access journal), Fourth issue.
15. 2014 ‘Culinary Subjectification: The Translated World of Menus and Orders’. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4 (2) (special issue on "Translating Worlds," edited by William F. Hanks and Carlo Severi): 141-160.
16. 2017 ‘Human Organs in Oil Tank Trucks: An Extractology’. Anthropological Forum 27 (4) (special issue on ‘Cosmopolitics of the Invisible: Spirit Worlds and the State of Environment on China's Ethnic Frontiers’. edited by Giovanni da Col): 402-421.
17. 2018 ‘Of Temples and Trees: The Black Dragon King and the Arbortourists’. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage 6 (1) (special issue ‘Religion, Pilgrimage and Tourism in India and China’ edited by Michael Stausberg and Knut Aukland) Article 8 (pp. 72-84).
18. 2019 ‘Hosting as a Cultural Form’ L’Homme 231-232 (Special issue ‘Cumulus: Hoarding, Hosting, and Hospitality’, edited by Adam Yuet Chau and Giovanni da Col): 41-66.
19. 2021 ‘Ritual Terroir: The Generation of Site-Specific Vitality’. Archives des Sciences Sociales des Religions 193 (1) (Special Issue on “Réguler les pluralités religieuses: mondes indiens et chinois comparés” [Regulating Religious Pluralities: Comparing the Indian and Chinese Worlds], edited by Vincent Goossaert and Peter van der Veer): 25-54.

Book Chapters in Edited Volumes (all peer-reviewed)

1. 2009 ‘Expanding the Space of Popular Religion: Local Temple Activism and the Politics of Legitimation in Contemporary Rural China’, in Yoshiko Ashiwa and David Wank, eds., Making Religion, Making the State: The Politics of Religion in Contemporary China, Stanford University Press, pp. 211-240.
2. 2011 ‘Modalities of Doing Religion’, in David A. Palmer, Glenn Shive and Philip Wickeri, eds., Chinese Religious Life, Oxford University Press, pp. 67-84.
3. 2011 ‘Introduction: Revitalizing and Innovating Religious Traditions in Contemporary China’, in Adam Yuet Chau, ed., Religion in Contemporary China: Revitalization and Innovation, Routledge, pp. 1-31.
4. 2012 ‘Transnational Buddhist Activists in the Age of Empires’, in Abigail Green and Vincent Viaene, eds., Religious Internationals in the Modern World, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 206-229.
5. 2012 ‘Efficacy, Not Confessionality: Ritual Polytropy at Chinese Funerals’, in Glenn Bowman, ed., Sharing the Sacra: the Politics and Pragmatics of Inter-communal Relations around Holy Places, Berghahn Books, pp. 79-96.
6. 2012 ‘Actants Amassing (AA).’ In Sociality: New Directions, edited by Nick Long and Henrietta Moore. Berghahn Books, pp. 133-155.
7. 2013 ‘(The Film) The Song of the Mango (芒果之歌): Political Awakening and the Magical Fruit’. In Mao’s Golden Mangoes and the Cultural Revolution, edited by Alfreda Murck, pp. 78-95. (catalogue for exhibition of artefacts of the mango cult held at Museum Rietberg, Zürich, Feb-Jun, 2013; Scheidegger & Spiess). German version of article in exhibition catalogue published concurrently: Maos Mango. Massenkult der Kulturrevolution.
8. 2013 ‘Script Fundamentalism: The Practice of Cherishing Written Characters (Lettered Paper) (惜字紙) in the Age of Literati Decline and Commercial Revolution’. In New Approaches to Studying Chinese Popular Religion and Sectarianism 中國民間宗教民間信仰研究之中歐視角, edited by Philip Clart; Boyang Publishers 博揚文化, pp. 129-167.
9. 2013 ‘Actants Amassing (AA): Beyond Collective Effervescence and the Social’. In Durkheim in Dialogue: A Centenary Celebration of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, edited by Sondra L. Hausner. Berghahn Books, pp. 206-230.
10. 2013 ‘Religious Subjectification: The Practice of Cherishing Written Characters and Being a Ciji (Tzu Chi) Person’. In Chang Hsun, ed. Chinese Popular Religion: Linking Fieldwork and Theory, Academia Sinica, pp. 75-113.
11. 2013 ‘A Different Kind of Religious Diversity: Ritual Service Providers and Consumers in China.’ In Religious Diversity in Chinese Thought, edited by Joachim Gentz and Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 141-154.
12. 2014 ‘“做宗教'的模式” (Modalities of Doing Religion). In David A. Palmer, Glenn Shive & Philip Wickeri, eds., 中國人的宗教生活 (Chinese Religious Life), Hong Kong University Press, pp. 63-84. (Chinese version of 2011 article ‘Modalities of Doing Religion’)
13. 2014 ‘關係/來往的'做宗教'模式: 以臺灣'媽祖遶境進香'為例’ (Relational Modality of Doing Religion: The Case of the Mazu Pilgrimage in Taiwan). In 〈研究新視界: 媽祖與華人民間信仰國際研討會論文集〉王見川, 李世偉, 洪瑩發主編 (Mazu and Popular Religion, edited by Wang Chien-Chuan, Li Shi-Wei and Hung Ying-fa), Boyang Publishers 博揚文化, pp. 57-77.
14. 2014 ‘Household Sovereignty and Religious Subjectification: Comparing the Idiom of Hosting in Chinese and Christian Religious Cultures’. In Studies in Church History (special issue on "The Church and the Household"), pp. 492-504.
15. 2015 ‘Chinese Socialism and the Household Idiom of Religious Engagement’. In Tam T. T. Ngo and Justine B. Quijada, eds., Atheist Secularism and its Discontents: A Comparative Study of Religion and Communism in Eurasia. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 225-243.
16. 2015 ‘Culinary Subjectification: The Translated World of Menus and Orders’. In Translating Worlds: The Epistemological Space of Translation, edited by Carlo Severi and William F. Hanks. HAU Books, University of Chicago Press. (same as 2014 article ‘Culinary Subjectification: The Translated World of Menus and Orders’ in HAU)
17. 2016 ‘The Commodification of Religion in Chinese Societies’. In Modern Chinese Religion II: 1850-2015, edited by Vincent Goossaert, Jan Kiely and John Lagerwey. Brill, pp. 949-976.
18. 2017 ‘The Nation in Religion and Religion in the Nation: How the Modern Chinese Nation Made Religion and Was at the Same Time Made by Religion’. In Religion and Nationalism in Chinese Societies, edited by Cheng-tian Kuo. Amsterdam University Press, pp. 117-142.
19. 2019 ‘Efficacy: The Immediate-Practical Modality of Doing Religion’. In Sakralität und Macht (Sacrality and Power), edited by Klaus Herbers, Karin Steiner & Andreas Nehring. Franz Steiner Verlag, pp. 203-215.
20. 2019 ‘Spaces of Youth Cultural Production in Rural China’. In Youth and Collective Spaces in China, edited by Vanessa Frangville and Gwennaël Gaffric. London: Routledge, pp. 75-97.
21. 2020 ‘Temples and Festivals in Rural and Urban China’, In Handbook on Religion in China, edited by Stephan Feuchtwang. Cheltenham and Camberley, UK: Edward Elgar, pp. 132-155.
22. 2020 ‘The “Religion Sphere” (zongjiaojie宗教界) in the Construction of Modern China’. In Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions II: Intellectual History of Key Concepts, edited by Gregory A. Scott and Stefania Travagnin. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 155-180.
23. 2020 ‘Religion and Social Change in Reform-Era China’. In Routledge Handbook of Chinese Culture and Society, edited by Kevin Latham, London: Routledge, pp. 411-29.
24. 2020 (with LIU Jianshu) ‘Spirit Mediumism in Shaanbei, Northcentral China’. In Spirit Possession and Communication in Religious and Cultural Contexts, edited by Caroline Blyth. London: Routledge, pp. 92-118.
25. 2020 ‘Daoist on Top or Host on Top?: The Relationship Between the Daoist Liturgical Framework and Local Cults in the Jiao 醮’. In Daoism and Local Cults: Rethinking the Paradigms, edited by Philip Clart, Vincent Goossaert and Hsie Shu-wei. Taipei: Center for Chinese Studies, Taiwan National Library, pp. 269-308.
26. 2021 ‘Homo Arborealus: The Intermeshing of Regimes of Tree-Mindedness’. In Chinese Environmental Ethics: Religions, Ontologies, and Practices, edited by Mayfair Yang. Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 225–256.
27. 2022 ‘皈依 guiyi (Prendre refuge). L’essor des identités confessionnelles en Chine et à Taiwan’. In Mots clés en Chine, edited by Vanessa Frangville and Françoise Lauwaert. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, pp. 205–233.
28. 2023 ‘Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Thanksgiving as Performance of Belief in Chinese Popular Religion’. In From Trustworthiness to Secular Beliefs: Changing Concepts of xin 信 from Traditional to Modern Chinese, edited by Christian Meyer and Philip Clart, pp. 565–585.
29. 2023 ‘Temple Inscriptions as Text Acts’. In Text, Context, and Acts: Chinese Popular Religion in Practice, edited by Shin-yi Chao. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, pp. 63–86.
30. 2026 “Superstition and the ‘Religion Sphere’. In Uncanny Beliefs: Superstition in Modern Chinese History, edited by Emily Baum and Albert Wu. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.
31. 2026 (forthcoming) “Spirit Mediums and Deity Attendants in Shaanbei.” In The Lives of Religious Masters in China, edited by Adeline Herrou. London: Routledge.
32. Under review “Storied Spirits: Constructing Efficacy (Lingying 靈應) and the Strange (Lingyi 靈異) Through Telling Tales.” In A Powerful Term: Ling – Between “Efficacy” and “Spirituality”, edited by Christian Meyer et al.

Monographs Under Preparation

A Nation of Spheres: Governance and Self-Governance in Contemporary China (co-authored with Jacqueline Zhenru LIN and Joseph Beadle) (projected completion date: mid-2026)

Cherishing Written Characters: Magic, Karma and the Crisis of Chinese Civilisation (including a translation of an early-1900s morality book 《惜字徵驗錄》; projected to complete in 2026)

Spirit Mediumism in Shaanbei, North-central China (co-written with LIU Jianshu; projected to complete in 2027)

The Sovereign Host: China, Ritual, Theory (projected to complete in 2027)

A collection of essays on funerals, ancestor worship and ghosts (based mostly on already-published articles; projected to complete in 2028)