2019 Urban Research Award: Dislocated Gods, De-territorialized Bodies: Temples, Space and Social Resilience in Urbanizing China

PI: Robert P. Weller, PhD; Professor, Boston University Department of Anthropology
Co-PI: Keping Wu, PhD; Associate Professor, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Department of China Studies

China has been undergoing extremely rapid urbanization, and millions of people have been resettled in the process—being displaced both physically and socially. The investigators will examine the lives of the resettled people, in what used to be five rural townships at the edge of the wealthy city of Suzhou, who are now living in large, low-end apartment complexes. How are the residents rebuilding social and personal lives in the city? Particularly, what new forms of spiritual life have come into being as a result of newly de-territorialized bodies (of both deities and people) and networks?

Publications

Weller, R. P. (2021). Censorship, foreclosure, and the three deaths of Fengzhen. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 11(2), 619-634.

Weller, R. P., & Wu, K. (2021). Overnight urbanization and changing spirits: disturbed ecosystems in Southern Jiangsu. Current Anthropology, 62(5), 602-630.

Weller, R. P. (2020). Respecting silence: Longing, rhythm, and Chinese temples in an age of bulldozers. History and Anthropology, 1-17.

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