TY - JOUR

T1 - Crafting Utopias for Spiritual Nationhood: Digested India in Contemporary Self-cultivation Practices in China

AU - Iskra, Anna

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - This study examines how India – both as a modern nation-state and a symbolic geography – is digested by Chinese self-cultivators to negotiate their belonging in China’s spiritual nationhood, defined as the landscape of belief that corresponds to the geo-body of the nation-state. It follows the practitioners of Oneness (Heyi), one of the most popular Indian new religious movements in China today, for whom such negotiations are riddled with tensions. While Oneness practitioners align themselves with political orthodoxy disseminated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), emphasizing China’s special role as a spiritual leader for humanity, they engage in quasi-religious heterodox practices, risking being labeled an “evil cult” (xie jiao). These frictions occur at the junction of two contrasting notions of spiritual nationhood, one derived from lingxing (spirituality) and the other from jingshen, a secularized notion of spirit that situates the CCP as the sacred center of the polity.

AB - This study examines how India – both as a modern nation-state and a symbolic geography – is digested by Chinese self-cultivators to negotiate their belonging in China’s spiritual nationhood, defined as the landscape of belief that corresponds to the geo-body of the nation-state. It follows the practitioners of Oneness (Heyi), one of the most popular Indian new religious movements in China today, for whom such negotiations are riddled with tensions. While Oneness practitioners align themselves with political orthodoxy disseminated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), emphasizing China’s special role as a spiritual leader for humanity, they engage in quasi-religious heterodox practices, risking being labeled an “evil cult” (xie jiao). These frictions occur at the junction of two contrasting notions of spiritual nationhood, one derived from lingxing (spirituality) and the other from jingshen, a secularized notion of spirit that situates the CCP as the sacred center of the polity.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - spirituality

KW - nationalism

KW - utopianism

KW - spiritual civilization

KW - Pan-Asianism

M3 - Journal article

VL - 55

SP - 604

EP - 631

JO - Critical Asian Studies

JF - Critical Asian Studies

SN - 1467-2715

IS - 4

ER -