What role has modern Chinese Buddhist activism played in the making of modernity at both national and transnational levels? Participants of this conference will situate the issue in the Greater China
context though an analysis of the transnational travel of Buddhism in general and Chinese Buddhist activism in particular. They will examine the emergence of Buddhist activism in the late 19th
century and Buddhists’ remaking of their tradition amid intellectual, social, and political changes in both mainland China and Taiwan. The conference will also examine how the Chinese have taken
part in creating Engaged Buddhism as a global phenomenon and, more importantly, how Buddhism has served as an important cultural-intellectual resource for those who want to confront challenges posed
by modern life.
9:30–11:45 a.m. Panel II: How Did Chinese Buddhist Activism Begin? The Late Qing and Early Republican Period
Hung-yok Ip (Oregon State University) “The Power of Interconnectivity: Tan Sitong’s invention of Buddhist Historical Agency in Late Qing China”
Discussant: Elise Devido (National Taiwan Normal University)
Yuan Yuan (Duke University)
“Female Buddhist Activism in Republican China, 1911–1949”
Discussant: Elise Devido (National Taiwan Normal University)
James Carter (Saint Joseph’s University)
“Buddhism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Manchuria”
Discussant: Alexander Mayer (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
1:00–2:30 p.m. Panel III: Buddhist Activism in Communist China and Taiwan in the Mid-20th Century
Xue Yu (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
“Buddhist Contribution to the Socialist Transformation of Buddhism: Activities of Ven. Juzan 1949–1953”
Discussant: Alexander Mayer (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Marcus Bingenheimer (Dharma Drum Buddhist College, Taiwan)
“Writing Buddhist History of Thought in the 20th Century—Yinshun (1906–2005) in the context of Chinese Buddhist Historiography" Discussant: Alexander Mayer (University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign)
2:45–4:15 p.m. Panel IV: Buddhist Activism in Taiwan: The Contemporary Scene
Esther-Maria Guggenmos (Ghent University, Belgium)
“Does Engaged Buddhism Really Reach the People Addressed? The Impact of Engaged Buddhism and Modernization on Contemporary Biographical Self-construction of Lay Buddhists in Taiwan”
Discussant: Zhiru (Pomona College)
Charles Jones (Catholic University of America) “Modernization and Traditionalism in Buddhist Almsgiving: The Case of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-chi Association in Taiwan” Discussant: Zhiru
(Pomona College)
