From structural separation to religious incorporation: A case study of a transnational buddhist group in Shanghai, China

Abstract

While most scholarship argues that modern Chinese cities are secular national and capitalist projects, my research presents a counterview to secular modernity by of fering a case study (Tzu Chi Foundation) of the development of public and private religious sites in the Shanghai region carried out by capital-linked migrants since the 1990s. The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation (Tzu Chi) is an international Buddhist relief organization founded in 1966 and based in Hualien, Taiwan, which has over seven mil-lion members in Taiwan and overseas. Taiwan has served as an important source of immigration that has contributed to the religious revival in China since the latter nation’s opening to outside inf luences. This chapter focuses on the reproduction of religious beliefs carried out by Taiwanese entrepreneurs in the intersection of transnational migration and the global division of labor in Shanghai. I try to explore the ways in which a transnational religious movement inhabits, adapts, and negotiates with secular forms of postcommunist state regulation and urban restructuring.