Workshop on East Asia:

Politics, Economy and Society Presents

“A New Religious Ecology in Crystallization: The Wane of Indigenous Religions and the Rise of Protestant Christianity in the Reform-era China”

Yanfei Sun

Department of Sociology, University of Chicago

4:00-5:30pm, MONDAY (special session)

October 19, 2009

Pick Lounge

5828 South University Ave.

Workshop website: http://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/eastasia/

Student coordinator: Jean Lin (jeanlin@uchicago.edu)

Faculty sponsors: Dali Yang, Cheol-sung Lee, Dingxin Zhao (on leave)

The workshop is sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies and the Council on Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences. Persons with disabilities who believe they may need assistance, please contact the student coordinator in advance.

Abstract:

Protestant Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the Reform-era China. Looking at various Protestant groups in a County in Zhejiang Province, this study finds that they enjoy different growth rates and possess different levels of strength.  To explain the differences, I probe into three sets of vital factors, namely, the ideas, practices, and organizational structures of the religious groups, their social environment—whether they are embedded in a rural or urban setting, and the groups’ relations with the state.