The Workroom
The Vernacular Practice and Theorising of a Religious Group in Contemporary Northeast China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7159205 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Haozhen Li (0009-0003-1761-3559, University of Tartu, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 124-145 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1736-6518 • E-ISSN: 2228-0987 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.2478/jef-2025-0021 |
| OpenAlex | W7116770631 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 38 |
This article investigates a religious group in contemporary northeast China. The group is formed by ritual experts and adherents of a traditional folk belief in animal spirits. The group runs as an institution providing aid to those who need psychological treatment, mainly using unorthodox psychological methods and therapies. Most members of this group identify themselves as devout Buddhists. They have developed a series of innovative rituals and generated syncretic teachings combining folk beliefs, vernacular Buddhism, Chinese traditional medicine, and unorthodox psychology. Based on primary fieldwork materials, this research regards this group as a unique religious phenomenon rooted in the particular sociocultural context of contemporary China. The structure and nature of the group is analysed from a folkloristic perspective, according to which the communicative process is highlighted. Two paradigms of the constitution of the group are examined: the network of interaction, and the community of intra-action. This research finds that the group is constituted in the dialogue of the two paradigms, which are unified by the coherence of the vernacular religion experienced by the members in everyday life
China · Constitution · Context (archaeology) · Folk religion · Phenomenon · Vernacular · Chinese history and philosophy · Cultural Differences and Values · Jungian Analytical Psychology
The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
An Organizational Analysis of the Falun Gong
Yiguandao under the Shadow of Nationalism
Falun Gong and the Future of China
The Sacred Village
The Flying Phoenix
Urban social exclusion and mental health of China's rural-urban migrants – A review and call for research
Egoism, altruism and intentionalism in Buddhist ethics
Sects and Cults
Alternative Healing as Magical Self-Care in Alternative Modernity
Syncretic Sects in Chinese Society
Alternatives
Disciplining Folkloristics
Clarifying the Cult
Religious Sects and the Concept of Deviance
The Place of Filial Piety in Ancient China
Vernacular Religion and the Search for Method in Religious Folklife
Definitions of Cult
Cults" and "New Religious Movements
The Illusion of Standardizing the Gods
A Typology of Cults
Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context
The Spiritualist Movement and the Need for a Redefinition of Cult
Depressive Illness and Navajo Healing
Sacred Healing and Biomedicine Compared
Scientology
Mapping Chinese Folk Religion in Mainland China and Taiwan
The Public Perception of 'Cults' and 'New Religious Movements
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |