Subjectivity and Locality in Chinese Religious Practices

Abstract

This article shows the scholarly significance of seeing Chinese religious believers as makers of cultural knowledge and meanings of their everyday life.By focusing on the role that subjectivity and locality play in structuring Chinese religious practices,I argue that practice rather than inner belief should be treated as the basic unit of analysis for socio-scientific research on Chinese religion.In so doing,I highlight the importance of studying Chinese religion as a form of everyday practice rather than merely as a religious institution.

中國的宗教徒既是文化知識的生產主體也是日常生活意義的建構者。對中國宗教的社會科學研究,不應限于傳統意義上的宗教設置的視角,而須進一步深入到宗教個體的日常實踐當中,考察他們的主體性與地方性的建構過程,以實踐而非個體信仰作為研究的基本分析單位。