ARI Working Paper Series

Religious philanthropy has become a significant force in contemporary China. This essay explores the interactions between policy toward religious philanthropy and religious groups that have undergone significant changes since their philanthropic involvement. Religious groups (sometimes under the name of the leader) have been providing social services since the state’s “opening-up” policies in the early 1980s. Since then, religious policies have changed a great deal. Recent regulations calling on the “religion sector” to contribute to the larger society have encouraged a philanthropic turn in the religious polices and aimed at shedding burdens of the Socialist state. Based on fieldwork in Jiangsu province from 2006 to 2014, this paper argues that these philanthropy-oriented policies demand more transparency and accountability of religious groups, which experience bureaucratization and professionalization. Related to these processes, there emerges an active laity that asserts a new religiosity that centers on love.

Full text is not available, this working paper is withdrawn, as it has now been published as part of a published volume: ‘The Philanthropic Turn of Religions in Post-Mao China: Bureaucratization, Professionalization, and the Making of a Moral Subject’, Journal of Modern China, Sage Publishing, 17 Nov 2016.