The current coronavirus outbreak raises profound questions about the future of social life and religious organizations in Singapore. The sociology of religion is based on the analysis of collective rituals, and how these embody and help generate fundamental social categories and classifications (such as kin groups, hierarchical relations, morality, the equation of the sacred with the social, etc.). Such rituals are currently impossible to carry out, or are being carried out without the participation of the community as a whole. Nonetheless, we believe that the Chinese temples and Buddhist monasteries of Singapore are strong and resilient organizations that will rise to the challenge of responding to the isolating effects of social distancing through new innovative means. This will involve in particular ritual innovation through the use of social media, but there are many aspects of religious organizational life and funding that will also have to transform. Nevertheless, there is still a need to maintain an infrastructure of hundreds if not thousands of temple and monastic buildings and halls, a number which will be approaching the end of their thirty-year lease. New pressures on religious leaders and communities will result in profound changes. We see to document these changes and to think the virus and its effects on sociality, ritual, and community. 

PIs: Kenneth Dean & Manimaran Pushpanatan
NUS Team: Hue Guan Thye, Wu Qi, Dean Wang, Caroline Chia & Xue Yiran
MCCY Team: Norhazlina Md Yusop & Lim Meow Nar

Funding Agency: Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY)
Project Duration: 19 July 2021 – 30 December 2023