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Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2255 The Congressional-Executive Commission on China held another in its series of staff-led Issues Roundtables, entitled "Unofficial Religion in China: Beyond the Party's Rules" on Monday, May 23, 2005, from 2:00 - 3:30 PM in Room 2255 of the Rayburn House Office Building. After the "reform and opening up" period began in 1979, the Chinese Communist Party changed its previous policy toward religion from complete repression of religious belief and practice to a rigid system that permitted believers a narrow range of Party-controlled religious practices. The growing number of believers and their flourishing new creeds, however, frequently have not fit within the government and Party approved structure. This roundtable examined these believers and the beliefs that have grown rapidly outside the official system, and also assessed the government's efforts to control them. The panelists: Patricia M. Thornton, Associate Professor of Political Science at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Professor Thornton earned her B.A. from Swarthmore College, and a Master's degree in Political Science from the University of Washington in Seattle. After earning her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley, she spent one year as an An Wang Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University's Fairbank Center for East Asian Research. Professor Thornton's research centers on social organizations and syncretic sectarian groups in contemporary China. In 2003, Professor Thornton was awarded a grant from the J. William Fulbright Foundation's New Century Scholars program allowing her to spend several months abroad researching syncretic cybersects and other Internet-based groups in Greater China and elsewhere. Her current research focuses on how syncretic sects in contemporary China have made use of high-tech resources such as the World Wide Web, Internet, and e-mail. David Ownby, Director of the Center of East Asian Studies at the University of Montreal. Professor Ownby earned his B.A. in History from Vanderbilt University, his Masters in East Asian Studies from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University. His research and publications include "Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China: The Formation of a Tradition;" "Scriptures of the Way of the Temple of the Heavenly Immortals;" "Imperial Fantasies: Chinese Communists and Peasant Rebellions;" "Comparative Studies in Society and History;" and "Is There a Chinese Millenarian Tradition? An Analysis of Recent Western Studies of the Taiping Rebellion." Robert P. Weller, Professor of Anthropology and Research Associate, Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University. Professor Weller earned his doctorate in anthropology from the Johns Hopkins University in 1980 for work on the role of religious variation in Taiwan's changing economy and society. He taught at Duke University before going to Boston University, where he is a Professor of Anthropology as well as a member of the University's Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs. His most recent book is "Alternate Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan." Other books include "Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion and Resistance, Chaos and Control in China: Taiping Rebels, Taiwanese Ghosts and Tiananmen." Two new books will appear this year: "Civil Life, Globalization, and Political Change in Asia: Organizing Between Family and State," and "Discovering Nature: Globalization and Environmental Culture in China and Taiwan." Written Statements: Transcript: Unofficial Religions in China: Beyond the Party's Rules (Text / PDF) |
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