NUS - Temples, Trust and Trade: Chinese Temple Networks in Southeast Asia
https://ari.nus.edu.sg/Event/Detail/9d7c98cf-7bb9-4b71-8fce-275a19de9fa7?from=singlemessage
The spread of religious networks is one of the most important cultural aspects of globalization today. This conference will bring together scholars based in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and China to examine specific case studies of the historical formation and contemporary flourishing of certain of the trade, temple and trust networks that emerged from the spread of migration of Chinese from the south and southeast coast of China to Southeast Asia.
Underlying and funding many of these temples and association were the great Chinese business families and extended lineages, the different dialect groups and their huiguan (regional business associations) and tongxianghui (native place associations), and the brotherhoods that enforced their mutually exclusive limits and economic niches. This conference seek papers that focus on Chinese temples, institutions, and business families with transnational networks. Papers that can relate the spread of these networks to the role of the temples/associations in their local context are welcome. Other papers may wish to explore the interactions between temples and associations in a particular region over time. Despite the centrality of these networks, there are still very few published case studies of their ritual and economic activities. Thus the conference will lead to a publication that will fill a major gap in the historiography of Southeast Asian Chinese communities.
This conference will focus on local historical sources from Southeast Asia to explore the role of and the interaction between the Chinese temple, family-lineage, and native place association networks in Southeast Asia in building long distance trust networks. All of these institutions played a part in the formation of a unique form of Chinese capitalism, which formed within the transnational networks linking south and southeast China to Southeast Asia. Some religious networks rejected national identities in place of either more local identities or more universal identities. Conference papers will examine the aspirations that can be found within many such religious networks, as these values motivated people to transfer wealth into religious merit and temple building, to re-circulate their wealth through charities, or more radically, to direct their profits into ritual fasting or support for the Dharma.
The networks examined in this conference moved and continue to flow past political borders and boundaries. They are incredibly flexible and developed fluid networking strategies. Many transcend or reshape ethnic or kinship boundaries while bringing their members into very specific regimes of exchange and reciprocity and mobilization. New religious networks in Southeast Asia have continually layered themselves onto the kaleidoscopic pattern of pre-existing networks, drawing upon the reservoir of shared symbolic capital within these networks, redirecting these resources towards their own ends, sometimes moralizing or expanding the sense of the self, or introducing a sense of belonging to a universal community beyond the bounds of the nation or any ethnicity. The networks discussed in the conference can also be seen as part of the ongoing expansion of religious connectivity and communication in Asia. Many networks are now exploring contemporary techniques and using new technologies to spread their message(s) and connect their adherents together across Southeast Asia and the world as a whole. This conference will solicit papers that explore a broad range of religious networks within the Chinese communities of Southeast Asia.
REGISTRATION
Admission is free, and seats are available on a first come, first served basis. Please email to minghua.tay@nus.edu.sg to indicate your interest to attend the conference.
CONTACT DETAILS
Conference Convenor
Prof Kenneth Dean
Asia Research Institute, and Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore
Contact Person(s)
Minghua TAY
尊敬的柯木林先生：
您好。
新加坡國立大學亞洲研究中心將在11月21日至22日，
我們會在第二天早上（11月22日）舉辦一場閉門式的圓桌會議，
丁荷生教授
中文系主任，新加坡國立大學
宗教與國際化研究小組組長，亞洲研究中心，新加坡國立大學中文系
Roundtable discussion on day 2: Conference on Temples, Trust and Trade: Chinese Temple Networks in Southeast Asia, 21-22 Nov
《联合早报》- 合作研究福建漳州文史 新中两地教授 通过小碑铭窥探大社会 (2018-02-01)
http://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/singapore/story20180201-831690
两人这段不寻常的跨国界合作，结出了丰硕的学术果实，更衍生了国大与厦门大学之间的合作。
过去30年，国大中文系主任丁荷生教授和厦门大学特聘教授、民间历史文献研究中心主任郑振满教授经常结伴到福建各地的寺庙和其他宗教场所搜集宗教史料，曾逐村逐庙地查访现存碑铭，通过这些田野调查研究福建社会文化史。
他们这段不寻常的跨国界合作，结出了丰硕的学术果实，更衍生了国大与厦大之间的合作。即将在今年问世的《福建宗教碑铭彙编－漳州府分册》，便是两人的合作项目之一。这部宗教碑铭彙编将分成四册，收录漳州地区超过2000份碑铭，这也是他们合作过的碑铭彙编中最庞大的一部。
两人最早在1995年合力出版《福建宗教碑铭彙编－兴华府分册》，这部碑铭彙编只有一册，收录了兴化地区442份宗教碑文，当中包括宋徽宗的“神霄玉清万寿宫碑”。福建所收藏的摹刻本原来立在莆田的元妙观，目前收藏在莆田博物馆碑廊。
2003年时，他们再合力出版分成上中下三册的《福建宗教碑铭彙编－泉州府分册》，里头收录了福建泉州地区的1363份碑文。两套《福建宗教碑铭彙编》都是由福建人民出版社出版。
每个地方都有自己的神谱和传说
到了2010年，两人再联名出版以英文为主的“Ritual Alliances of Putien Plain ”（《莆田平原的仪式联盟》）。这套东方学手册（Handbook of Oriental Studies）是由西方出版社Brill出版。
趁郑振满教授（62岁）去年底到我国出席国大亚洲研究所（Asia Research Institute）主办的“庙宇、信任与贸易－华人庙宇在东南亚的网络”研讨会之际，本报访问了这两位长期合作的学者。
丁荷生说，他是在1984年第一次到莆田参观湄洲岛，当时恰逢中国改革开放的新历史机遇，让他目睹了民间信仰在文革被铲除后死灰复燃的情景，此后便兴致勃勃地研究起福建地区的庙宇。在结识厦大的郑振满教授后，两人自1987年便不断携手合作，如今已是相识30年的老朋友。
丁荷生专注研究的地区是莆田平原，郑振满恰巧是莆田人。为了出版《莆田平原宗教仪式联盟》，两人曾遍访那里的724个村庄，仔细观察和记录这些村子的宗教活动。福建古代为闽越之地，民间“信鬼尚祀”，他们走访的700多个村子竟然有2500多座神庙，供奉的神明更多达1200种，每个地方都有自己的神谱和传说。
郑振满记得过去数十年寻访碑铭时，曾借助各种交通工具，从公交车、吉普车、小轿车、拖拉机、摩托车到自行车等。
“有时还不得不徒步穿越山间小道，途中还遇到各种事故，例如有一次爬过一堵砖墙，搜寻被锁在破庙内的碑刻，可是在找到碑刻的那一刻，那堵墙却开始摇摇晃晃，我们赶紧闪避逃命。”
他们也曾伤心地发现有些碑铭在文革时被打碎，又或者在寺庙复兴时被废弃，也有残存的石碑被当成建材，用来铺路，甚至成为水渠旁的洗衣板，碑文被磨损得无法识读。不过和所有从事田野工作的学者一样，每当发现新碑刻或新材料，他们便会无比兴奋。
两位学者也指出，福建泉州地区长久以来一直有海外贸易活动，因此除了北方汉人所引进的释儒道，还有来自海外的摩尼教、伊斯兰教、基督教和天主教等，现存资料丰富，是研究宗教的理想窗口。
本地福建人和他们所兴建的庙宇，很多源自泉州和漳州地区，《福建宗教碑铭彙编》对研究本地和东南亚华人的移民播迁史，因此也很有帮助。
