On "Urban Buddhism" (dushi fojiao 都市佛教)

Abstract

“Dushi fojiao 都市佛教” (Urban Buddhism) is a relatively new concept among current city Buddhist monasteries and lay practitioners. In this talk, I will review the recent discourse on a bottom-up concept and practice, “urban Buddhism,” in the last few decades, building on monastic narratives, elite narratives, and state narratives. Adapting to urban Buddhist practice, inevitably, means adapting to modernity. The talk will also cover the association on how the term “humanistic Buddhism” has been shifted to “urban Buddhism” in the long history of Shanghai's local setting about the normative account of contemporary Buddhism in China.