Events

Jointly organized by Asia Research Institute, and Wan Boo Sow Research Centre for Chinese Culture at the Department of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore.

CHAIRPERSON

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

ABSTRACT

Physical space for religious use is highly regulated in Singapore, often resulting in strategies of compromise and creativity. In this talk, I will be examining how Chinese Religion practitioners in Singapore engage in a form of “strategic compromise” when it comes to practicing their faith. Drawing from concepts in my recent book, Of Gods, Gifts and Ghosts: Spiritual Places in Urban Spaces, I will show how individuals make use of a spiritual imagination to develop sacred flowscapes – sacred spaces that ebb and flow, working within regulatory boundaries while still defying physical infrastructure. These flowscapes are dependent on the ability of adherents and spirit mediums to arbitrate sacredness through their comportment, imagination and material practices. I will also show how visual methods, and the creation of a visual monograph, are key ways in which we can document and analyse these sacred flowscapes.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Terence Heng is a photographer and sociologist. He is currently a senior lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool. His research ambulates through the intersections of cultural geography, visual sociology and photographic practice, investigating diasporic Chinese identities, sacred space-making amongst Chinese Religion practitioners and spirit mediums, and photographic methods for social research. His most recent books are Diasporas, Weddings and the Trajectories of Ethnicity (Routledge 2020) and Of Gods, Gifts and Ghosts: Spiritual Places in Urban Spaces (Routledge 2020).

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. Please register at https://forms.office.com/r/j7a1QgdfGP, and we will confirm your mode of attendance and email you the webinar link prior to the event.