Multiple Liminalities of Lay Buddhism in Contemporary China

In the past decades, lay Buddhism has increasingly emerged in unexpected places—in the spaces in-between, beneath, above, and beyond conventional conceptions of religious or spiritual life in China. This book explores manifestations of the revival of Buddhism among non-monastic people and communities, building on mixed methods qualitative research. The book wishes to answer the central question: How do Chinese groups and individuals practice Buddhism under the socio-political and cultural circumstances of contemporary China? The sample of case studies draw on examples from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (Taiwan, ROC). The book explores Buddhist communities, individual practitioners, materials, spaces, practice modalities and relationships. Each chapter examines a significant paradigm that plays a role in the revival of Buddhism in China, highlighting how lay practitioners negotiate their spaces, resources, moral and ethical beliefs, and values, in the face of rapid societal changes brought about by modernity. These changes include state policies, economic shifts, local trends, and global developments, such as environmental concerns and technological advances. Overall, the author argues for the concept of 'multiple liminalities' as a useful framework to describe the contemporary predicament of lay Buddhism in Chinese societies. Accordingly, the book explores how lay Buddhist actors occupy liminal spaces and positions or operate across ambiguous boundaries where realms of in-betweenness, serve as avenues for religious responses to the complex challenges Buddhism faces.