Purdue Symposium 2009
Religion and Spirituality in China Today
2009 Purdue Symposium
Banner and Photo Exhibition.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Participants entering into the conference venue.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Fenggang Yang, director of CRCS.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Lily Szeto, project manager of CRCS, behind the reception desk.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Session I: The Revival of Confucianism: Alice Wang (chair), Joy Lam, Anna Sun, Diane Obenchain (from left to right).
2009 Purdue Symposium
Audience.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Audience.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Zhenyu Tang presented her paper.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Jiexia Zhai raised a question.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Xuefeng Zhang presented his paper.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Jiexia Zhai and Jianghua Yang during the lunch break.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Dru Gladney and Zhenyu Tang during the lunch break.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Lunch at the conference venue.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Xuefeng Zhang and Yulin Liu in front of the Photo Exhibit.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Fenggang Yang spoke at the openning remark.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Viktor Gecas, Head of the Department of Sociology, Purdue University, spoke at the opening remark.
2009 Purdue Symposium
John Contreni, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University, spoke at the opening remark.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Ellen Gruenbaum, Head of the Department of Anthropology, Purdue University, indroduced Dru Gladney, our keynote speaker.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Dru Gladney, keynote speaker, presented his paper.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Yichao Tu and Carsten Vala during the coffee break.
2009 Purdue Symposium
John Contreni, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, at the Photo Exhibit.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Photo Exhibition.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Keynote Presentations on Religious Freedom and U.S.-China relations: Carsten Vala (chair), Brian Grim, Yichao Tu (from left to right).
2009 Purdue Symposium
Brian Grim presented his paper.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Anna Sun raised a question.
2009 Purdue Symposium
An audience raised a question.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Tom Berndt, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts .
2009 Purdue Symposium
Session VI: Studying religion of the Chinese in diasporas held at University Plaza Hotel.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Session VI: Studying religion of the Chinese in diasporas held at University Plaza Hotel.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Fenggang Yang and Shangyang Sun.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Session VII: A Survey of Religion in China, Working Session (1): Carson Mencken (chair), Eric Liu, Changqi Xia, Yuyan Zhao, Rong He (from left to right)
2009 Purdue Symposium
Session VIII: A Survey of Religion in China, Working Session (2): Fenggang Yang (chair), Minle Xu, Reid Leamaster, Jun Lu, Anning Hu (from left to right).
2009 Purdue Symposium
Session VIII: A Survey of Religion in China, Working Session (2): Fenggang Yang (chair), Minle Xu, Reid Leamaster, Jun Lu, Anning Hu (from left to right).
2009 Purdue Symposium
Photo Exhibition.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Eric Liu raised a question in one of the sessions.
2009 Purdue Symposium
James Davidson, Professor of Sociology at Purdue University, chaired the keynote presentation.
2009 Purdue Symposium
One of the keynote speakers, Victor Yuan.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Carson Mencken from Baylor University presented his paper.
2009 Purdue Symposium
Fenggang Yang presented his paper.
2009 Purdue Symposium
James Davidson, Fenggang Yang, Carson Mencken, and Victor Yuan (from left to right).
2009 Purdue Symposium
Group Photo.
2009 Purdue Symposium
People from Center on Religion and Chinese Society:Lily Szeto, Anning Hu(back), Joanne Yang, Fenggang Yang, Zhenyu Tang, Jun Lu, Minle Xu, Alice Wang and Soyoung Kwon (from left to right).
In celebration of the anniversary of its establishment, the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University held the Symposium on Religion and Spirituality in China Today from April 30 to May 2, 2009.
Thirty scholars from the United States, China, and Singapore and other participants engaged in heated discussions on the religious developments and transformations in contemporary China and similar subjects of academic interest.
The symposium consisted of such special sessions and workshops as “Revival of Confucianism,” “Rise of Christianity in China,” “Christianity and Civil Society,” “Islam on China,” “Religious Freedom and U.S.-China Relations,” “Studying Religion of the Chinese in Diaspora,” and “Survey of Religion in China.”
Keynote speaker Dru Gladney looked at the development of Islam in post-Olympic and post-9/11 China. Through examining the “One World, One Dream” theme of the Beijing Olympics and its “staging” of unity and plurality, Professor Gladney gave the audience a vivid PowerPoint presentation on how the historical trajectory of Islam in China and the state’s policy toward Islam highlighted the tension of internal politics suggesting “many worlds, many dreams” and the circumstances for Islam’s survival. (click to watch video)
Another keynote speaker Brian Grim argued that whereas society in general grants a fair degree of religious latitude (the yang, or light side of religious regulation), the government is less willing to “afford such latitude (the yin, or dark side of religious regulation) largely because it views a number of religion-related groups in the country as threats. (click to watch video)
To conclude the symposium, our third keynote speaker Victor Yuan, president of Horizon Research Consultancy Group, maintained that religious beliefs have unconsciously had profound impact on the habit, behaviors, sense of happiness and public life of the Chinese. But the impact is still limited compared to western societies, especially the U.S. He argued that although religion in China is changing, due to stringent religion policies, the general circumstances have not improved much. (click to watch video)
