Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Kenneth Dean, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore

PROGRAM

ABSTRACT

Voices from the Underworld focuses on Singapore and Malaysia’s contemporary Chinese Underworld traditions where Hell deities are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities on altars and when channelled through spirit mediums. Intended for academics, lecturers, students, and those intrigued with Chinese culture, while highlighting the Taoist and Buddhist cosmologies upon which present-day beliefs and practices are based, the ethnography provides readers with unique insights into the lived tradition. Embracing ontological and dialogic approaches to religious phenomena, alterity is taken seriously, and practitioner’s beliefs interpreted without bias. The emic voice is literally heard through first-person dialogues between the author and channelled Underworld deities throughout the ethnography. This alternative approach challenges wider present-day discourse concerning the interrelationships between sociocultural and spiritual worlds.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Fabian Graham has been a Research Fellow in the Religion and Globalisation cluster since December 2018. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from SOAS in London, and two master’s degrees, one in ‘Taiwan Studies’ from National Chengchi University in Taipei and the second in ‘Social Anthropological Analysis’ from the University of Cambridge. He was previously a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany.

Fiona Bowie graduated in Anthropology from Durham University in 1978 and the Institute of Social Anthropology in Oxford (1978-1985). She taught at the Universities of Wales and Bristol, with visiting and honorary positions at the Universities of Cambridge, the Carter Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia, and Linköping in Sweden. She is currently Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London, a tutor on the MA in the Study of Cosmology in Culture in the Faculty of Humanities and the Performing Arts at University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), an external tutor at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and Member of Wolfson College, Oxford. Fiona founded the Afterlife Research Centre (ARC), together with some colleagues and graduate students, when at the University of Bristol in around 2010. ARC is a network for scholars and practitioners interested in ethnographic approaches to the afterlife, spirit possession, shamanism, transpersonal anthropology, alternative healing, and related topics: http://www.afterliferesearch.co.uk. Fiona Bowie is currently serving as Honorary Treasurer of the Royal Anthropological Institute and as a European Research Council panel member.

Kenneth Dean is Head of the Chinese Studies Department, National University of Singapore (NUS) and Research Cluster Leader for Religion and Globalisation, NUS. His recent publications include Chinese Epigraphy of Singapore, 2 vols. (with Hue Guan Thye), Singapore: NUS Press 2017, Ritual Alliances of the Putian Plains, 2 vols. (with Zheng Zhenman), Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2010, Epigraphical Materials on the History of Religion in Fujian: Quanzhou Prefecture (3 vols), Xinghua Prefecture, Fuzhou: Fujian Peoples’ Publishing House, 2004, 1995, Lord of the Three in One: The Spread of a Cult in Southeast China, Princeton: 1998; Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults of Southeast China, Princeton 1993; and First and Last Emperors: The Absolute State and the Body of the Despot (with Brian Massumi), Autonomedia, New York, 1992. He directed Bored in Heaven: A Film about Ritual Sensation (Dean 2010), an 80-minute documentary film on ritual celebrations around Chinese New Years in Putian, Fujian, China.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.