Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce's Books

State, Society, and Religious Engineering

Towards a Reformist Buddhism in Singapore

By: Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce

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State, Society, and Religious Engineering

Towards a Reformist Buddhism in Singapore

By: Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce

The book looks at how religion in Singapore is being subjected to the processes of modernisation and change. The Singapore State has consciously brought religion under its guidance. It has exercised strong bureaucratic and legal control over the functioning of all religions in Singapore. The Chinese community and the Buddhist Sangha have responded to this by restructuring their temple institutions into large multi-functional temple complexes. There has been quite a few books written on the role of the Singapore State but, so far, none has been written on the topic - the relationship between state, society and religion. It will help to fill the missing gap in the scholarly literature on this area. This is also a topic of great significance in many Asian, particularly Southeast Asian, countries and it will serve as an important book for future reference in this area of research and comparative studies.

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Page Count

353

Publisher

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

Published Date

ISBN 10

9812308652

ISBN 13

9789812308658

Rebuilding the Ancestral Village

Singaporeans in China

By: Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce

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Rebuilding the Ancestral Village

Singaporeans in China

By: Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce

This work illustrates the relationship between one group of Singaporean Chinese and their ancestral village in Fujian, China. It explores the reasons why the Singaporean Chinese continue to maintain ties with their ancestral village and how they reproduce Chinese culture through ancestor worship and religion in the ancestral village. In some cases, the Singaporeans feel morally obliged to assist in village reconstruction and infrastructure developments such as new roads, bridges, schools and hospitals. Others help with small-scale industrial and retail activities. Meanwhile, officials and villagers in the ancestral home utilize various strategies to encourage the Singaporeans to revisit their ancestral village, sustain heritage ties, and help enhance the moral economy. This ethnographic study examines two geographically distinct groups of Chinese coming together to re-establish their lineage and identity through cultural and economic activities

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Page Count

308

Publisher

Hong Kong University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

9888028812

ISBN 13

9789888028818

Rebuilding the Ancestral Village

Singaporeans in China

By: Khun Eng Kuah

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Rebuilding the Ancestral Village

Singaporeans in China

By: Khun Eng Kuah

Originally published in 2000, this second edition was first published in 2010. This is a discussion of the relationship between one group of Singapore Chinese and their ancestral village in Fujian in China. It explores the various reasons why the Singapore Chinese continue to want to maintain ties with their ancestral village and how they go about reproducing Chinese culture (in the form of ancestor worship and religion) in the village milieu in China. It further explores the reasons why the Singapore Chinese feel morally obliged to assist their ancestral village in village reconstruction (providing financial contributions to infrastructure development such as the buildings of roads, bridges, schools, hospitals) and to help with small scale industrial and retail activities. Related to this is how the village cadres and teenagers, through various strategies, managed to encourage the Singapore Chinese to revisit their ancestral village and help with village reconstruction, thereby creating a moral economy. The main argument here concerns the desire of the Singapore Chinese to maintain a cultural identity and lineage continuity with their ancestral home. Ethnographically, this anthropological study examines two groups of Chinese separated by historical and geographical space, and their coming together to re-establish their cultural identity through various cultural and economic activities. At the theoretical level, it seeks to add a new dimension to the study of Chinese transnationalism and diaspora studies.

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Page Count

293

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000588432

ISBN 13

9781000588439

The Social Production of Buddhist Compassion in Chinese Societies

By: Khun Eng Kuah

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The Social Production of Buddhist Compassion in Chinese Societies

By: Khun Eng Kuah

This book investigates and establishes a theoretical framework for the study of the social production of religious compassion in the era of shale modernity among Chinese communities in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. It argues that the production of Buddhist compassionate fields in the 21st century is a response to the rising social inequality and social needs of modern society. Religious compassion serves as an emotive force that propels the religious self and socio-religious groups to commit to the performance of acts of philanthropy that includes the delivery of welfare and care services, medical care, education and humanitarian aid. Through a combination of documentation analysis and anthropological research, the book examines the interconnectivity of reformist Buddhist teachings of compassion, charisma, gender and state in influencing the attitudes and actions of the sangha and Buddhist individuals in the production of Buddhist compassionate fields in a changing socio-economic landscape. It will be of interest to scholars from anthropology, sociology, religious studies and Asian studies.

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Page Count

200

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000469034

ISBN 13

9781000469035

Social Cultural Engineering and the Singaporean State

By: Khun Eng Kuah

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Social Cultural Engineering and the Singaporean State

By: Khun Eng Kuah

This book, a collection of previously published articles, focuses on the role of the Singaporean State in social cultural engineering. It deals with the relationship between the Singaporean state and local agencies and how the latter negotiated with the state to establish an acceptable framework for social cultural engineering to proceed. The book also highlights the tensions and conflicts that occurred during this process. The various chapters examine how the Singaporean state used polices and regulatory control to conserve and maintain ethno-cultural and ethno-religious landscapes, develop a moral education system and how the treatment of women and its morality came into alignment with the values that the state espoused upon from the 1980s through the 1990s.

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Page Count

167

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

9811069719

ISBN 13

9789811069710

Ancestor Worship in the Diaspora Chinese and China Universes

The Making of a Collaborative Cultural Basin

By: Khun Eng Kuah

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Ancestor Worship in the Diaspora Chinese and China Universes

The Making of a Collaborative Cultural Basin

By: Khun Eng Kuah

Kuah explores the centrality of ancestors and ancestor worship of the Chinese in the Diaspora Chinese and China universes. Building on the original work and book on “Rebuilding the Ancestral Village: Singaporeans in China”, this book goes beyond the premise of remaking the ancestral home. Ancestor worship and the ancestors, together with selected cultural practices, constitute an important aspect of the broad Chinese culture shared by these two groups of Chinese and leads to the making of a collaborative cultural basin. This book takes the audience on an ancestor worship journey to uncover the complexity of ancestors and ancestral souls crossing transnational spaces, their choices of ancestral soul homes, the significance of the lineage ancestral house and the engagement of women through food offering contesting patriarchy. It also explores the increasing role of the Mainland Chinese state in appropriating ancestor and ancestor worship as a cultural icon and during the Qingming festival as a socio-moral capital and cultural bridge to foster closer ties with the Diaspora Chinese in its attempt to bring them into its “Chinese civilizational polity”. The book also takes the audience on a photographic journey to visually experience the various rituals and the vibrancy of the ritual performances conducted during the different stage from pre-communal to communal ancestor worship. An essential read for scholars of Chinese society and religion, Chinese migration and diaspora studies.

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