Journal articles on the topic 'Catholic Church – China – Hong Kong'

The Catholic Church of Hong Kong with its geopolitical proximity has become the gateway or bridge for the contact between Chinese Catholics and the universal church. Due to the transfer of the territory's sovereignty to China in 1997 and the June 1989 massacre in Beijing, Hong Kong Catholics have been going out of their traditional way by involving themselves more intensively in politics. This political behavior has an important bearing on the Sino-Vatican reconciliation which is beginning to take shape after a long, difficult period of pursuit. This article aims at discussing the dual role of the Hong Kong Catholic Church in the triangle relations of China, Hong Kong, and the Vatican.

The Eighth General Synod of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (‘Holy Catholic Church of Hong Kong’) met from 23 to 25 June 2019 at St James's Church in the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. The Synod had been scheduled to meet from 23 to 27 June but concluded its business two days early. It normally meets every three years.

Based on both documentary research and a series of interviews, this study retrieves the ecumenical spirit of the beginning of the dismissed Tsuen Wan Ecumenical Social Service Centre (TWESSC), a Christian non-governmental organization. Early ecumenical praxis among six local churches (including one Catholic parish) testified to the need to work for (and with) the poor and to advocate for social justice, as promoted and sponsored by the World Council of Churches in the early 1970s. The TWESSC was recognised as an effective activist group in colonial Hong Kong, but was disbanded in 1997, due to conflict between the executive committee (including church representatives) and its frontline social workers and its service recipients. This article contributes to the study of ecumenism in Hong Kong in two ways. Firstly, it examines the emergence of the ecumenical movement in Hong Kong against the broader background of the involvement of church groups in community development. Secondly, it explores how the Hong Kong churches were occupied by the subvention of frontline services by the government since the 1980s, and how they sought to silence dissenting voices in the ecumenical movement.

From June to December of 2019, the normally peaceful streets of Hong Kong were filled with demonstrators and on many occasions with violent clashes between protesters and police. Hong Kong society was rocked by the Anti-Extradition Movement. We will give a brief description of the movement. Then we will describe the ways in which churches and Christians have participated in this movement. Thirdly, we will go into various controversies generated within the churches of Hong Kong. We do not intend to provide practical solutions to those controversies. Our main concern is to demonstrate that the social background of Christians often intertwines with theological convictions and these controversies which create a challenge to the unity of the local churches. KEYWORDS: Hong Kong, China, blue and yellow Christians, Anti-Extradition Movement, church and state, civil disobedience, protest, Christians and violence, police

Chinese Christian (Catholic) architecture is not only an important type of religious architecture, but also an important witness of cultural exchanges between China and the West. This article comprehensively summarizes the architectural styles of Christian (Catholic) churches in modern mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong, and compares the differences in the main styles of their churches horizontally. Based on the data results, a comprehensive analysis of various factors such as age, region, religion, and society is carried out to further explore the reasons for the differences in the architectural styles of Christian churches in the three regions, and discover the historical and religious significance of the Christian churches in modern China.

Abstract This article retells the story of a Chinese language textbook, the Notitia linguæ sinicæ, written by a Catholic missionary in China for the use of Catholic missionaries to that country, and eventually printed by a Catholic mission press in China for the same purpose. It would have been a simple and short tale, if not for the fact that this many-faceted journey took one-hundred-and-sixty-five years to complete, involved crossing and re-crossing the two leading Christian traditions of Catholicism and Protestantism, took the work across great distances from Canton to Paris, London, Malacca, back to Canton and then to Hong Kong, and required the use of the Chinese language, both its higher form and the more day-to-day version, but also of Latin and English.

Abstract The British Empire expanded into East Asia during the early years of the Protestant Mission Movement in China, one of history’s greatest cross-cultural encounters. Anglicans, however, did not accommodate local Chinese culture when they built St. John’s Cathedral in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. St. John’s had a prototypical English style and was a gathering place for the colony’s political and social elites, strengthening the new social order. The Cathedral spoke a Western architectural language that local residents could not understand and many saw Christianity as a strange, imposing, foreign religion. As indigenous Chinese Christians assumed leadership of Hong Kong’s Anglican Church, ecclesial architecture took on more Chinese elements, a transition epitomized by St. Mary’s Church, a Chinese Renaissance masterpiece featuring symbols from Taoism, Buddhism, and Chinese folk religions. This essay analyzes the contextualization of Hong Kong’s Anglican architecture, which made Christian concepts more relevant to the indigenous community.

This article explores the tension between missionary hopes for mass conversion through Christian education and the reality of operating mission schools in one colonial context: Hong Kong. Riding on the wave of British imperial expansion, George Smith, the first bishop of the diocese of Victoria, had a vision for mission schooling in colonial Hong Kong. In 1851, Smith established St Paul's College as an Anglo-Chinese missionary institution to educate, equip and send out Chinese young people who would subsequently participate in mission work before evangelizing the whole of China. However, Smith's vision failed to take institutional form as the college encountered operational difficulties and graduates opted for more lucrative employment instead of church work. Moreover, the colonial government moved from a laissez-faire to a more hands-on approach in supervising schools. The bishops of Victoria were compelled to reshape their schools towards more sustainable institutional forms while making compromises regarding their vision for Christian education.

In the twentieth century Hong Kong’s population expanded dramatically. Yet, it was only after one million refugees from China settled in the 1950s that the colonial Government undertook population control. Imposing immigration restrictions was straightforward, but curbing unprecedented natural growth proved problematic. On the one side, supporting family planning risked alienating pro-life Catholic organizations, many channelling necessary relief for the refugees in an anti-communist mission for the USA. While on the other, indigenous infant welfare, which reduced infant mortality, could not be neglected further, in part because of the postwar resetting of race relations, its importance in improving public health, and the attention given to the refugee crisis by world public opinion. Hence, the paradox of an overpopulated British colony investing in infant welfare, not in family planning.

The Chosŏn Envoys to Beijing and their View on the Jesuits in the Qianlong Period of Persecution: Hong Tae-yong’s Tamhŏnyŏnki as a Case Study As Matteo Ricci arrived to China, the Jesuits began their missionary activities in the Empire spurring new cultural interactions between East and West. While the current scholarship is particularly focused on the activities between late Ming and early Qing, the activities that took place during the Qianlong persecution have been ignored by the academia. At that time, however, some missionaries were still working at the Qintianjian (Imperial Astronomical Bureau), also trying to preach sermons to Chinese common people as well as to other individuals, such as the members of the Korean embassies to Beijing. Members of Chosŏn envoys to Beijing (Yŏnhaengsa) were granted by the Qing court the permission to visit different places in Beijing, therefore getting in contact with different people and activities. They got the opportunity to visit the church in the capital city and to meet the Jesuits, as well. This opportunity aroused the envoys’ curiosity about the Jesuits’ culture and religion. In 1765, one of the members of the embassy, Hong Tae-yong (1731-1783), got the opportunity to interact with two members of the Jesuits, Ferdinand Avguštin Hallerstein (1703-1774) and Antoine Gogeisi (1701-1771): that encounter helped Hong to learn more about the situation of Beijing missionaries which he successively recorded in his travel journal Tamhŏnyŏnki. The records of Tamhŏnyŏnki about the missionaries and Hong Tae-yong’s interest on Catholic Church were related to the social and intellectual background of Hong Tae-yong in Chosŏn Kingdom. The Tamhŏnyŏnki’s records not only help us understand the envoys’ interest in Beijing’s Catholic culture, but they also reshape the discourse of the missionaries’ activities during the period of persecution, providing evidence that the missionaries were still working hard on their religious activities at that time. Also, the Tamhŏnyŏnki encouraged other intellectuals in Chosŏn to understand Western culture in general and Catholicism. This text, then, shows how the Korean envoys’ travel journals shaped the image of the missionaries, thus shedding new light on Ming-Qing Catholicism as well as on the development of Western learning in the Korean peninsula.

The French move into what they came to call Indo-China began, as the Hong Kong Register was to put it, with motives hostile to British power. Pre-revolutionary France had indeed seen such a move as a means of contesting Britain's supremacy in Asia: placing themselves between the growing empire in India and the growing trade with China, the French could embarrass their European rivals. But establishing themselves in Vietnam was easier said than done. The limited help they were able to afford Gia-long reaped them no great reward, and his successor, Minh-mang, even turned against the Catholic missionaries whom he saw as sources of subversion of his Confucian-style reunification. Continued anti-Catholic activity on the part of his successor was to give Napoleon III an excuse to intervene in the 1850s. But by then, as the Register noted, the old rivalry with the British had died out. The British had sought to open up trade with Vietnam, but, both before and after their victory over neighbouring China, the Vietnamese had refused to accept a commercial treaty. The British thus did not oppose the more forceful attempt the French made to open up Vietnam. Their only concern was lest the French should trench upon the territory of Laos and Cambodia, and thus undermine the independence of Siam, which the British saw as an outwork of their empire in Burma and Malaya. There was indeed a crisis over Laos, and thus over Siam, in 1893, but the French and the British came to terms in 1896. Their agreement in Southeast Asia was consolidated by their agreement in Europe, which the apprehension of Germany promoted.

Today’s Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which came to power in 1949, continues to recognize religion and Christianity as part of the dominant Western culture, and as the means to establish relationships and promote religion and culture. When faced with a moral or ethical dilemma the CCP looks to a Confucian past for traditions just as the Canadian state draws on the Protestant and Catholic cultures of its so-called founding peoples. The Chinese state has additionally attempted to manage religious engagement by propping up select Buddhist temples and working through grassroots personal webs of connection to household religious altars, enshrined deities, and communal practices. In China and in Canada, states claim neutrality but in both cases and for different reasons religion is treated as culture. The paper’s ethno-historical approach draws on over 15 years of fieldwork and historical research throughout the Chinese cultural sphere (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, and Canada). Looking across histories and nations it traces state governance in China and Canada, webs of connections, and personal interactions that have shaped religious identities and the resurgence of Chinese temple life and select religious cults.

IntroductionNumerous studies have found associations between characteristics of urban environments and risk factors for dementia and cognitive decline, such as physical inactivity and obesity. However, the contribution of urban environments to brain and cognitive health has been seldom examined directly. This cohort study investigates the extent to which and how a wide range of characteristics of urban environments influence brain and cognitive health via lifestyle behaviours in mid-aged and older adults in three cities across three continents.Methods and analysisParticipants aged 50–79 years and living in preselected areas stratified by walkability, air pollution and socioeconomic status are being recruited in Melbourne (Australia), Barcelona (Spain) and Hong Kong (China) (n=1800 total; 600 per site). Two assessments taken 24 months apart will capture changes in brain and cognitive health. Cognitive function is gauged with a battery of eight standardised tests. Brain health is assessed using MRI scans in a subset of participants. Information on participants’ visited locations is collected via an interactive web-based mapping application and smartphone geolocation data. Environmental characteristics of visited locations, including the built and natural environments and their by-products (e.g., air pollution), are assessed using geographical information systems, online environmental audits and self-reports. Data on travel and lifestyle behaviours (e.g., physical and social activities) and participants’ characteristics (e.g., sociodemographics) are collected using objective and/or self-report measures.Ethics and disseminationThe study has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Australian Catholic University, the Institutional Review Board of the University of Hong Kong and the Parc de Salut Mar Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Government of Catalonia. Results will be communicated through standard scientific channels. Methods will be made freely available via a study-dedicated website.Trial registration numberACTRN12619000817145.

International Business Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated.International Business Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://recruitment.ccsenet.org and e-mail the completed application form to ibr@ccsenet.org.Reviewers for Volume 11, Number 5 Abderrazek Hassen Elkhaldi, University of Sousse, TunisiaAnna Paola Micheli, Univrtsity of Cassino and Southern Lazio, ItalyAurelija Burinskiene, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, LithuaniaCelina Maria Olszak, University of Economics in Katowice, PolandFawzieh Mohammed Masad, Jadara University, JordanFederica De Santis, University of Pisa , ItalyFevzi Esen, Istanbul Medeniyet University, TurkeyFilomena Izzo, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, ItalyFlorin Ionita, The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, RomaniaFrancesco Ciampi, Florence University, ItalyFrancesco Scalera, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", ItalyGrzegorz Zasuwa, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, PolandHanna Trojanowska, Warsaw University of Technology, PolandHung-Che Wu, Nanfang College of Sun Yat-sen University, ChinaImran Riaz Malik, IQRA University, PakistanJorge Mongay-Hurtado, ESIC Business and Marketing School, SpainKaren Gulliver, Argosy University, Twin Cities, USAM. Muzamil Naqshbandi, University of Dubai, UAEMaria do Céu Gaspar Alves, University of Beira Interior, PortugalMaurizio Rija, University of Calabria, ItalyMihaela Simionescu, Institute for Economic Forecasting of the Romanian Academy, RomaniaModar Abdullatif, Middle East University, JordanMohamed Abdel Rahman Salih, Taibah University, Saudi ArabiaMohamed Rochdi Keffala, University of Kairouan, TunisiaMuath Eleswed, American University of Kuwait, USAMurat Akin, Omer Halisdemir University FEAS – NIGDE, TurkeyÖzcan IŞIK, Cumhuriyet University, TurkeyPascal Stiefenhofer, University of Brighton, UKProsper Senyo Koto, Dalhousie University, CanadaRadoslav Jankal, University of Zilina, SlovakiaRiccardo Cimini, University of Tuscia, Viterbo, ItalyRoberto Campos da Rocha Miranda, University Center Iesb, BrazilShun Mun Helen Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong KongValeria Stefanelli, University of Salento, ItalyVincent Grèzes, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais-Wallis), SwitzerlandWanmo Koo, Western Illinois University, USAWing-Keung Wong, Asia University, Taiwan, China

The characteristic architectural style of Tao Fong Shan in Hong Kong is unique in the sense that this Christian institution looks exactly like a traditional Chinese Buddhist monastery. What kind of secret exists behind this seemingly uncoordinated appearance? The two names of Karl Ludvig Reichelt and Johannes Prip-Møller are closely connected with Tao Fong Shan buildings, but few people know how exactly the Norwegian founder of The Christian Church for China’s Buddhists met and cooperated with the Danish architect in designing these buildings. The present paper is an effort to retrace the initial vision of architectural style for Tao Fong Shan shared by Reichelt and Prip-Møller, as well as the evolution of the later designs at different stages. Reichelt found many common features between Chinese Buddhism and the Gospel of John in New Testament. In order to promote the missionary work among China’s Buddhists, he tried to create an environment in which the inquiring Buddhists would find it comfortable and at ease. Reichelt’s another contribution is in raising money for the construction of Tao Fung Shan buildings. His method of crowd funding proved to be practical and effective. Prip-Møller had ten years’ experiences of working in China and was a top-notch expert in China’s Buddhist architecture. His professional expertise has ensured that Reichelt’s idea of combining the traditional Chinese Buddhist architectural style and the Christian nature of Tao Fong Shan buildings could be eventually realized.

International Business Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated.International Business Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://recruitment.ccsenet.org and e-mail the completed application form to ibr@ccsenet.org.Reviewers for Volume 10, Number 12Abedalqader Rababah, Arab Open University, OmanAhmad Mahmoud Ahmad Zamil, King Saud University RCC, JordanAlireza Athari, Eastern Mediterranean University, IranAnca Gabriela Turtureanu, “DANUBIUS” University Galati, RomaniaAnna Paola Micheli, Univrtsity of Cassino and Southern Lazio, ItalyAntonella Petrillo, University of Napoli “Parthenope”, ItalyAshford C Chea, Benedict College, USAAtallah Ahmad Alhosban, Aqaba University of Technology, JordanBenjamin James Inyang, University of Calabar, NigeriaCheng Jing, eBay, Inc. / University of Rochester, USAChuan Huat Ong, KDU Penang University College, MalaysiaCristian Marian Barbu, “ARTIFEX” University, RomaniaFederica De Santis, University of Pisa, ItalyFoued Hamouda, Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, TunisiaFrancesco Ciampi, Florence University, ItalyFrancesco Scalera, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", ItalyGrzegorz Zasuwa, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, PolandGuillaume Marceau, University of Aix-Marseille, FranceHanna Trojanowska, Warsaw University of Technology, PolandHerald Monis, Milagres College, IndiaHongliang Qiu, Tourism College of Zhejiang, ChinaHung-Che Wu, Nanfang College of Sun Yat-sen University, ChinaJanusz Wielki, University of Business in Wroclaw, PolandKherchi Ishak, University of Hassiba Ben Bouali De Chlef, AlgeriaLadislav Mura, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, SlovakiaMahdi Shadkam, University Technology Malaysia, MalaysiaManuela Rozalia Gabor, “Petru Maior” University of Tîrgu Mureş, RomaniaMaria Teresa Bianchi, University of Rome “LA SAPIENZA”, ItalyMaria-Madela Abrudan, University of ORADEA, RomaniaMiriam Jankalová, University of Zilina, SlovakiaMiroslav Iordanov Mateev, American University, Dubai, UAEMithat Turhan, Mersin University, TurkeyModar Abdullatif, Middle East University, JordanMohamed Abdel Rahman Salih, Taibah University, Saudi ArabiaMohamed Rochdi Keffala, University of Kairouan, TunisiaMongi Arfaoui, University of Monastir, TunisiaMuath Eleswed, American University of Kuwait, USAOnur Köprülü, Mersin University, TurkeyÖzcan IŞIK, Cumhuriyet University, TurkeyPascal Stiefenhofer, University of Brighton, UKRadoslav Jankal, University of Zilina, SlovakiaSang-Bing Tsai, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, ChinaShun Mun Helen Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong KongValeria Stefanelli, Università del Salento, Italy

Higher Education Studies wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. Higher Education Studies is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://recruitment.ccsenet.org and e-mail the completed application form to hes@ccsenet.org. Reviewers for Volume 9, Number 1 Abdelaziz Mohammed, Albaha University, Saudi Arabia Ana-Cornelia Badea, Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, Romania Anna Liduma, University of Latvia, Latvia Antonina Lukenchuk, National Louis University, USA Arbabisarjou Azizollah, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Iran Ausra Kazlauskiene, Siauliai University, Lithuania Barbara N. Martin, University of Central Missouri, USA Carmen P. Mombourquette, University of Lethbridge, Canada Deniz Ayse Yazicioglu, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Dibakar Sarangi, Teacher Education and State Council for Educational research and Training, India Evrim Ustunluoglu, Izmir University of Economics –Izmir/Turkey, Turkey Firouzeh Sepehrianazar, Orumieh university, Iran Geraldine N. Hill, Elizabeth City State University, USA Gerard Hoyne, School of Health Sciences, University of Notre Dame Australia, Australia Gregory S. Ching, Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan Hüseyin Serçe, Selçuk University, Turkey Jayanti Dutta, Panjab University, India Jisun Jung, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong John Cowan, Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom John Walter Miller, Benedict College in Columbia, USA Laid Fekih, University of Tlemcen Algeria, Algeria Lung-Tan Lu, Fo Guang University, Taiwan, Taiwan Mehmet Ersoy, Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technologies, Turkey Mei Jiun Wu, Faculty of Education, University of Macau, China Meric Ozgeldi, Mersin University, Turkey Mirosław Kowalski, University of Zielona Góra, Poland Nicos Souleles, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Okedeyi Sakiru Abiodun, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Nigeria Philip Denton, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom Rachida Labbas, Washington State University, USA Ranjit Kaur Gurdial Singh, The Kilmore International School, Australia Sahar Ahadi, Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Iran Tuija A. Turunen, University of Lapland, Finland Vasiliki Brinia, Athens University of Economic and Business, Greece Zahra Shahsavar, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran

International Business Research wishes to acknowledge the following individuals for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Their help and contributions in maintaining the quality of the journal are greatly appreciated. International Business Research is recruiting reviewers for the journal. If you are interested in becoming a reviewer, we welcome you to join us. Please find the application form and details at http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/editor/recruitment and e-mail the completed application form to ibr@ccsenet.org. Reviewers for Volume 11, Number 11   Alireza Athari, Eastern Mediterranean University, Iran Anca Gabriela Turtureanu, “DANUBIUS” University Galati, Romania Andrea Carosi, University of Sassari, Italy Andrei Buiga, “ARTIFEX University of Bucharest, Romania Anna Paola Micheli, Univrtsity of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy Antônio André Cunha Callado, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernmabuco, Brazil Antonio Usai, University of Sassari, Italy Ashford C Chea, Benedict College, USA Bazeet Olayemi Badru, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Nigeria Chokri Kooli, International Center for Basic Research applied, Paris, Canada Duminda Kuruppuarachchi, University of Otago, New Zealand Essia Ries Ahmed, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia Fevzi Esen, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Turkey Filomena Izzo, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy Francesco Scalera, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Italy Grzegorz Zasuwa, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland Haldun Şecaattin Çetinarslan, Turkish Naval Forces Command, Turkey Hanna Trojanowska, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland Herald Monis, Milagres College, India Hsiao-Ching Kuo, Washington and Jefferson College, USA Hung-Che Wu, Nanfang College of Sun Yat-sen University, China Ionela-Corina Chersan, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University from Iași, Romania Iwona Gorzeń-Mitka, Czestochowa University of Technology, Poland Janusz Wielki, Opole University of Technology, Poland Keshmeer Makun, University o the South Pacific, Fiji Khaled Mokni, Northern Border University, Tunisia L. Leo Franklin, Bharathidasn University, India Luisa Pinto, University of Porto School of Economics, Portugal Mahdi Shadkam, University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia Manuel A. R. da Fonseca, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil Marcelino José Jorge, Evandro Chagas Clinical Research Institute of Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil Maria Teresa Bianchi, University of Rome “LA SAPIENZA”, Italy Michaela Maria Schaffhauser-Linzatti, University of Vienna, Austria Miriam Jankalová, University of Zilina, Slovakia Miroslav Iordanov Mateev, American University, Dubai, UAE Mithat Turhan, Mersin University, Turkey Mohsen Malekalketab Khiabani, University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia Muath Eleswed, American University of Kuwait, USA Murat Akin, Omer Halisdemir University FEAS – NIGDE, Turkey Ozgur Demirtas, Turkish Air Force Academy, Turkey Radoslav Jankal, University of Zilina, Slovakia Riaz Ahsan, Government College University Faisalabad, Pakistan Roxanne Helm Stevens, Azusa Pacific University, USA Serhii Kozlovskiy, Donetsk National University, Ukraine Shun Mun Helen Wong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Wanmo Koo, Western Illinois University, USA Yasmin Tahira, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, Al Ain, UAE

SECULARITY AND SCIENCE: What Scientists around the World Really Think about Religion by Elaine Howard Ecklund et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 352 pages. Hardcover; $31.95. ISBN: 9780191926755. *I was raised in the 1980s and 1990s under conservative evangelicalism, which means my father's bookshelf was full of creation/evolution texts, and we never missed Ken Ham when he came to town. The conflict narrative between science and religion was in full force then, and it remains with us today (if slightly diminished). Religious conservatives weren't the only ones talking secularization, though. Scholars such as Peter Berger had observed decades earlier that science often acts as a carrier of secularization. Berger lived long enough, however, to see that secularization did not unfold as expected, and he modified his view near the close of the millennium to indicate that secularization is not a uniform process. Rather, we observe "multiple modernities " marked by various trajectories of secularization and religious growth. *Such is the essential backdrop for Secularity and Science: What Scientists around the World Really Think about Religion. Here, Rice University sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund and her team ask a simple and compelling question: If science is linked to secularization--as the story so often goes--what do scientists actually think about religion? The answer comes via survey research on 20,000 physicists and biologists in France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as 600 in-depth interviews. The result is an impressive and wide-ranging report not only on the status of religion and science in a global perspective, but also on several theoretical and practical considerations surrounding the secularization debate. As sociologists they take care to address hierarchical and institutional matters (i.e., academic rank, university status and prestige, levels of science infrastructure, etc.), and as scholars of religion they investigate how religious factors vary across national contexts (i.e., definitions of religion and spirituality, religious characteristics of populations, state-church relations, antagonism between scientists and the general public, the place of religion in the scientific workplace, etc.). Each country or region receives a focused chapter, briefly summarized below. *The United States (chap. 3, "The 'Problem' of the Public") is characterized by a soft secularism in which 65% of scientists believe in God. US scientists aren't particularly antagonistic to religion, but significant conflict between scientists and the public exists due to the large, politically active, conservative Christian population. This public issue plays a role in undermining the US scientific enterprise. *In the United Kingdom (chap. 4, "'New Atheists' and 'Dangerous Muslims'"), 57% of scientists believe in God. The UK is characterized by a unique dynamic in which new atheist scientists speak at the popular level while at the same time half of the country's scientists originate outside the UK, often bringing religious values with them. UK biologists expressed concern about a growing Muslim population and implications for some realms of scientific thought (e.g., evolution). *In France (chap. 5, "Assertive Secularism in Science"), 49% of scientists report belief in God. French secularism is based on laïcité (freedom from religion) and the state actively excludes religion from public life. The result is that dialogue between religion and science is difficult to sustain, with laïcité disproportionately affecting Muslim women in science. *Eighty percent of scientists in Italy (chap. 6, "A Distinctively Catholic Religion and Science") believe in God. Conflict between science and religion is a non-issue, largely due to the monolithic nature of cultural Catholicism ("Everyone's Catholic. And nobody cares," p. 7). Even non-Catholic scientists, many of whom identify as "spiritual but not religious," tend to see religion and science as separate realms in what could be called "a version of religious modernity." Scientists belonging to certain Catholic networks appear to have better access to jobs, funding, and other opportunities. *In Turkey (chap. 7, "The Politics of Secular Muslims"), 94% of scientists say they believe in God. Turkish scientists broadly believe in God but do not see themselves necessarily as personally religious. They observe little conflict between science and religion when Islam is considered broadly, but express concern about the ascendancy of a political form of Islam which threatens academic freedom. Many Turkish academics are leaving the country, and scientific infrastructure has suffered in recent years. *In India (chap. 8, "Science and Religion as Intimately Intertwined"), 90% of scientists report belief in God, and religious affiliation among scientists is higher than in the general public. India is a growing scientific superpower, and religion is so "in the air" that Indian scientists often make connections between religion and science without even noticing. A number of Indian scientists observe that the "conflict" between religion and science is a Western construction. *In Hong Kong and Taiwan (chap. 9, "A Science-Friendly Christianity and Folk Religion"), 90% (Taiwan) and 74% (Hong Kong) of scientists believe in God or gods. Like India, affiliation among scientists is higher than in the general population. Both of these regions' education systems have been influenced by Christianity, and scientists in Hong Kong speak of meeting faculty and administrators in the sciences at Christian churches. Despite the influence of Christianity, the Western science and religion conflict narrative is not strong. *These summary points hardly do justice to the scope of the authors' project, but they do highlight something that they themselves hold up as a central finding: namely, that conflict between religion and science is an invention of the West. The data indicate that a conflict perspective animates just one-third of scientists in the US, the UK, and France, with the remaining countries evincing much lower numbers. Rather, science and religion are most commonly viewed as different aspects of reality--independent of one another--a view embraced by both nonreligious and religious scientists. Regarding religious scientists, the authors report that from a global perspective there are many more than commonly assumed. Even scientists themselves consistently underestimate the proportion of their colleagues who are religious. *Overall, the book provides tremendous insight, thanks to rich quantitative and qualitative data, into how national and social contexts shape and interact with scientists' views of religion. No other study of this magnitude exists, and that fact alone makes it a remarkable achievement worthy of examination. Its greatest strength lies in the treatment of each country and region, with effective data and storytelling illuminating the relation between science and religion in that location. *The primary weaknesses are the minimal synthesis of cross-national data and the limited discussion of how results fit within the larger secularization debate (which the authors use to frame the book). Secularization themes are treated on a country-by-country basis, but only seven pages of the concluding chapter attempt a synthesis, and the discussion is largely practical. Given the expertise of the authors involved, it feels like a missed opportunity for a more theoretically rich discussion. I would like to have seen, for example, discussion on whether the independence model (as opposed to the conflict model) is itself linked to secularization. The majority of the world's scientists may be at least nominally religious, but without explicit philosophical and theological work to engage science, isn't it probable that the independence model might just as easily contribute to secularization as oppose it? In other words, whose secularity are we talking about? Strong atheists may view independence as accommodating religion; the highly devout may interpret it as another facet of secularity. *That said, the book is an empirical rather than a theoretical work, and an excellent one at that. The data are rich enough for readers well versed in the secularization debate to incorporate them into their own hypotheses. The primary message, supported by a wealth of rigorous data, indicates that global scientists are more religious than we often realize, and that narratives around science and religion in the US are not the only ones requiring our attention. *Reviewed by Blake Victor Kent, Westmont College Department of Sociology, Santa Barbara, CA 93108.

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Introduction Lillian Ng was born in Singapore and lived in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom before migrating to Australia with her daughter and Ah Mah Yin Jie (“Ah Mahs are a special group of people who took a vow to remain unmarried … [so they] could stick together as a group and make a living together” (Yu 118)). Ng studied classical Chinese at home, then went to an English school and later on studied Medicine. Her first book, Silver Sister (1994), was short-listed for the inaugural Angus & Robertson/Bookworld Prize in 1993 and won the Human Rights Award in 1995. Ng defines herself as a “Chinese living in Australia” (Yu 115). Food, flesh and meat are recurrent topics in Lillian Ng´s second novel Swallowing Clouds, published in 1997. These topics are related to desire and can be used as a synecdoche (a metaphor that describes part/whole relations) of the human body: food is needed to survive and pleasure can be obtained from other people´s bodies. This paper focuses on one type of meat and animal, pork and the pig, and on the relation between the two main characters, Syn and Zhu Zhiyee. Syn, the main character in the novel, is a Shanghainese student studying English in Sydney who becomes stranded after the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 1989. As she stops receiving money from her mother and fears repression if she goes back to China, she begins to work in a Chinese butcher shop, owned by Zhu Zhiyee, which brings her English lessons to a standstill. Syn and Zhu Zhiyee soon begin a two-year love affair, despite the fact that Zhu Zhiyee is married to KarLeng and has three daughters. The novel is structured as a prologue and four days, each of which has a different setting and temporal location. The prologue introduces the story of an adulterous woman who was punished to be drowned in a pig´s basket in the HuanPu River in the summer of 1918. As learnt later on, Syn is the reincarnation of this woman, whose purpose in life is to take revenge on men by taking their money. The four days, from the 4th to the 7th of June 1994, mark the duration of a trip to Beijing and Shanghai that Syn takes as member of an Australian expedition in order to visit her mother with the security of an Australian passport. During these four days, the reader learns about different Chinese landmarks, such as the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Ming Tomb and the Summer Palace, as well as some cultural events, such as a Chinese opera and eating typical foods like Peking duck. However, the bulk of the plot of the book deals with the sexual relationship, erotic games and fantasies of Syn and Zhu Zhiyee in the period between 1989 and 1992, as well as Syn´s final revenge in January 1993. Pigs The fact that Zhu Zhiyee is a butcher allows Lillian Ng to include references to pigs and pork throughout the novel. Some of them refer to the everyday work of a butcher shop, as the following examples illustrate: “Come in and help me with the carcass,” he [Zhu Zhiyee] pointed to a small suckling pig hung on a peg. Syn hesitated, not knowing how to handle the situation. “Take the whole pig with the peg,” he commanded (11).Under dazzling fluorescent tubes and bright spotlights, trays of red meat, pork chops and lamb cutlets sparkled like jewels … The trays edged with red cellophane frills and green underlay breathed vitality and colour into the slabs of pork ribs and fillets (15).Buckets of pig´s blood with a skim of froth took their place on the floor; gelled ones, like sliced cubes of large agate, sat in tin trays labelled in Chinese. More discreetly hidden were the gonads and penises of goats, bulls and pigs. (16)These examples are representative of Syn and Zhu Zhiyee´s relationship. The first quotation deals with their interaction: most of the time Zhu Zhiyee orders Syn how to act, either in the shop or in bed. The second extract describes the meat’s “vitality” and this is the quality of Syn's skin that mesmerised Zhu when he met her: “he was excited, electrified by the sight of her unblemished, translucent skin, unlined, smooth as silk. The glow of the warmth of human skin” (13). Moreover, the lights seem to completely illuminate the pieces of meat and this is the way Zhu Zhiyee leers at Syn´s body, as it can be read in the following extract: “he turned again to fix his gaze on Syn, which pierced and penetrated her head, her brain, eyes, permeated her whole body, seeped into her secret places and crevices” (14). The third excerpt introduces the sexual organs of some of the animals, which are sold to some customers for a high price. Meat is also sexualised by Zhu Zhiyee´s actions, such as his pinching the bottoms of chickens and comparing them with “sacrificial virgins”: “chickens, shamelessly stripped and trussed, hung by their necks, naked in their pimply white skin, seemed like sacrificial virgins. Syn often caught Zhu pinching their fleshy bottoms, while wrapping and serving them to the housewives” (15-16). Zhu also makes comments relating food with sex while he is having lunch next to Syn, which could be considered sexual harassment. All these extracts exemplify the relationship between Syn and Zhu Zhiyee: the orders, the looks and the implicit sexuality in the quotidian activities in the butcher´s shop. There are also a range of other expressions that include similes with the word `pig´ in Ng´s novel. One of the most recurrent is comparing the left arm and hand of Zhu Zhiyee´s mother with a “pig´s trotter”. Zhu Zhiyee´s mother is known as ZhuMa and Syn is very fond of her, as ZhuMa accepts her and likes her more than her own daughter-in-law. The comparison of ZhuMa´s arm and hand with a trotter may be explained by the fact that ZhuMa´s arm is swollen but also by the loving representation of pigs in Chinese culture. As Seung-Og Kim explains in his article “Burials, Pigs, and Political Prestige in Neolithic China”: In both Melanesia and Asia, pigs are viewed as a symbolic representation of human beings (Allen 1976: 42; Healey 1985; Rappaport 1967: 58; Roscoe 1989: 223-26). Piglets are treated as pets and receive a great deal of loving attention, and they in turn express affection for their human “parents.” They also share some physiological features with human beings, being omnivorous and highly reproductive (though humans do not usually have multiple litters) and similar internal anatomy (Roscoe 1989: 225). In short, pigs not only have a symbiotic relationship with humans biologically but also are of great importance symbolically (121). Consequently, pigs are held in high esteem, taken care of and loved. Therefore, comparing a part of a human´s body, such as an arm or a hand, for example, to a part of a pig´s body such as a pig´s trotter is not negative, but has positive connotations. Some descriptions of ZhuMa´s arm and hand can be read in the following excerpts: “As ZhuMa handed her the plate of cookies Syn saw her left arm, swollen like a pig´s trotter” (97); “Syn was horrified, and yet somewhat intrigued by this woman without a breast, with a pig´s trotter arm and a tummy like a chessboard” (99), “mimicking the act of writing with her pig-trotter hand” (99), and ZhuMa was praising the excellence of the opera, the singing, acting, the costumes, and the elaborate props, waving excitedly with her pig trotter arm and pointing with her stubby fingers while she talked. (170) Moreover, the expression “pig´s trotters” is also used as an example of the erotic fetishism with bound feet, as it can be seen in the following passage, which will be discussed below: I [Zhu Zhiyee] adore feet which are slender… they seem so soft, like pig´s trotters, so cute and loving, they play tricks on your mind. Imagine feeling them in bed under your blankets—soft cottonwool lumps, plump and cuddly, makes you want to stroke them like your lover´s hands … this was how the bound feet appealed to men, the erotic sensation when balanced on shoulders, clutched in palms, strung to the seat of a garden swing … no matter how ugly a woman is, her tiny elegant feet would win her many admirers (224).Besides writing about pigs and pork as part of the daily work of the butcher shop and using the expression “pig´s trotter”, “pig” is also linked to money in two sentences in the book. On the one hand, it is used to calculate a price and draw attention to the large amount it represents: “The blouse was very expensive—three hundred dollars, the total takings from selling a pig. Two pigs if he purchased two blouses” (197). On the other, it works as an adjective in the expression “piggy-bank”, the money box in the form of a pig, an animal that represents abundance and happiness in the Chinese culture: “She borrowed money from her neighbours, who emptied pieces of silver from their piggy-banks, their life savings”(54). Finally, the most frequent porcine expression in Ng´s Swallowing Clouds makes reference to being drowned in a pig´s basket, which represents 19 of the 33 references to pigs or pork that appear in the novel. The first three references appear in the prologue (ix, x, xii), where the reader learns the story of the last woman who was killed by drowning in a pig´s basket as a punishment for her adultery. After this, two references recount a soothsayer´s explanation to Syn about her nightmares and the fact that she is the reincarnation of that lady (67, 155); three references are made by Syn when she explains this story to Zhu Zhiyee and to her companion on the trip to Beijing and Shanghai (28, 154, 248); one refers to a feeling Syn has during sexual intercourse with Zhu Zhiyee (94); and one when the pig basket is compared to a cricket box, a wicker or wooden box used to carry or keep crickets in a house and listen to them singing (73). Furthermore, Syn reflects on the fact of drowning (65, 114, 115, 171, 172, 173, 197, 296) and compares her previous death with that of Concubine Pearl, the favourite of Emperor Guanxu, who was killed by order of his aunt, the Empress Dowager Cixi (76-77). The punishment of drowning in a pig´s basket can thus be understood as retribution for a transgression: a woman having an extra-marital relationship, going against the establishment and the boundaries of the authorised. Both the woman who is drowned in a pig´s basket in 1918 and Syn have extra-marital affairs and break society’s rules. However, the consequences are different: the concubine dies and Syn, her reincarnation, takes revenge. Desire, Transgression and Eroticism Xavier Pons writes about desire, repression, freedom and transgression in his book Messengers of Eros: Representations of Sex in Australian Writing (2009). In this text, he explains that desire can be understood as a positive or as a negative feeling. On the one hand, by experiencing desire, a person feels alive and has joy de vivre, and if that person is desired in return, then, the feelings of being accepted and happiness are also involved (13). On the other hand, desire is often repressed, as it may be considered evil, anarchic, an enemy of reason and an alienation from consciousness (14). According to Pons: Sometimes repression, in the form of censorship, comes from the outside—from society at large, or from particular social groups—because of desire´s subversive nature, because it is a force which, given a free rein, would threaten the higher purpose which a given society assigns to other (and usually ideological) forces … Repression may also come from the inside, via the internalization of censorship … desire is sometimes feared by the individual as a force alien to his/her true self which would leave him/her vulnerable to rejection or domination, and would result in loss of freedom (14).Consequently, when talking about sexual desire, the two main concepts to be dealt with are freedom and transgression. As Pons makes clear, “the desiring subject can be taken advantage of, manipulated like a puppet [as h]is or her freedom is in this sense limited by the experience of desire” (15). While some practices may be considered abusive, such as bondage or sado-masochism, they may be deliberately and freely chosen by the partners involved. In this case, these practices represent “an encounter between equals: dominance is no more than make-believe, and a certain amount of freedom (as much as is compatible with giving oneself up to one´s fantasies) is maintained throughout” (24). Consequently, the perception of freedom changes with each person and situation. What is transgressive depends on the norms in every culture and, as these evolve, so do the forms of transgression (Pons 43). Examples of transgressions can be: firstly, the separation of sex from love, adultery or female and male homosexuality, which happen with the free will of the partners; or, secondly, paedophilia, incest or bestiality, which imply abuse. Going against society’s norms involves taking risks, such as being discovered and exiled from society or feeling isolated as a result of a feeling of difference. As the norms change according to culture, time and person, an individual may transgress the rules and feel liberated, but later on do the same thing and feel alienated. As Pons declares, “transgressing the rules does not always lead to liberation or happiness—transgression can turn into a trap and turn out to be simply another kind of alienation” (46). In Swallowing Clouds, Zhu Zhiyee transgresses the social norms of his time by having an affair with Syn: firstly, because it is extra-marital, he and his wife, KarLeng, are Catholic and fidelity is one of the promises made when getting married; and, secondly, because he is Syn´s boss and his comments and ways of flirting with her could be considered sexual harassment. For two years, the affair is an escape from Zhu Zhiyee´s daily worries and stress and a liberation and fulfillment of his sexual desires. However, he introduces Syn to his mother and his sisters, who accept her and like her more than his wife. He feels trapped, though, when KarLeng guesses and threatens him with divorce. He cannot accept this as it would mean loss of face in their neighbourhood and society, and so he decides to abandon Syn. Syn´s transgression becomes a trap for her as Zhu, his mother and his sisters have become her only connection with the outside world in Australia and this alienates her from both the country she lives in and the people she knows. However, Syn´s transgression also turns into a trap for Zhu Zhiyee because she will not sign the documents to give him the house back and every month she sends proof of their affair to KarLeng in order to cause disruption in their household. This exposure could be compared with the humiliation suffered by the concubine when she was paraded in a pig´s basket before she was drowned in the HuangPu River. Furthermore, the reader does not know whether KarLeng finally divorces Zhu Zhiyee, which would be his drowning and loss of face and dishonour in front of society, but can imagine the humiliation, shame and disgrace KarLeng makes him feel every month. Pons also depicts eroticism as a form of transgression. In fact, erotic relations are a power game, and seduction can be a very effective weapon. As such, women can use seduction to obtain power and threaten the patriarchal order, which imposes on them patterns of behaviour, language and codes to follow. However, men also use seduction to get their own benefits, especially in political and social contexts. “Power has often been described as the ultimate aphrodisiac” (Pons 32) and this can be seen in many of the sexual games between Syn and Zhu Zhiyee in Swallowing Clouds, where Zhu Zhiyee is the active partner and Syn becomes little more than an object that gives pleasure. A clear reference to erotic fetishism is embedded in the above-mentioned quote on bound feet, which are compared to pig´s trotters. In fact, bound feet were so important in China in the millennia between the Song Dynasty (960-1276) and the early 20th century that “it was impossible to find a husband” (Holman) without them: “As women’s bound feet and shoes became the essence of feminine beauty, a fanatical aesthetic and sexual mystique developed around them. The bound foot was understood to be the most intimate and erotic part of the female anatomy, and wives, consorts and prostitutes were chosen solely on the size and shape of their feet” (Holman). Bound feet are associated in Ng’s novel with pig´s trotters and are described as “cute and loving … soft cottonwool lumps, plump and cuddly, [that] makes you want to stroke them like your lover´s hands” (224). This approach towards bound feet and, by extension, towards pig´s trotters, can be related to the fond feelings Melanesian and Asian cultures have towards piglets, which “are treated as pets and receive a great deal of loving attention” (Kim 121). Consequently, the bound feet can be considered a synecdoche for the fond feelings piglets inspire. Food and Sex The fact that Zhu Zhiyee is a butcher and works with different types of meat, including pork, that he chops it, sells it and gives cooking advice, is not gratuitous in the novel. He is used to being in close proximity to meat and death and seeing Syn’s pale skin through which he can trace her veins excites him. Her flesh is alive and represents, therefore, the opposite of meat. He wants to seduce her, which is human hunting, and he wants to study her, to enjoy her body, which can be compared to animals looking at their prey and deciding where to start eating from. Zhu´s desire for Syn seems destructive and dangerous. In the novel, bodies have a price: dead animals are paid for and eaten and their role is the satiation of human hunger. But humans, who are also animals, have a price as well: flesh is paid for, in the form of prostitution or being a mistress, and its aim is satiation of human sex. Generally speaking, sex in the novel is compared to food either in a direct or an indirect way, and making love is constantly compared to cooking, the preparation of food and eating (as in Pons 303). Many passages in Swallowing Clouds have cannibalistic connotations, all of these being used as metaphors for Zhu Zhiyee’s desire for Syn. As mentioned before, desire can be positive (as it makes a person feel alive) or negative (as a form of internal or social censorship). For Zhu Zhiyee, desire is positive and similar to a drug he is addicted to. For example, when Zhu and Syn make delivery rounds in an old Mazda van, he plays the recordings he made the previous night when they were having sex and tries to guess when each moan happened. Sex and Literature Pons explains that “to write about sex … is to address a host of issues—social, psychological and literary—which together pretty much define a culture” (6). Lillian Ng´s Swallowing Clouds addresses a series of issues. The first of these could be termed ‘the social’: Syn´s situation after the Tiananmen Massacre; her adulterous relationship with her boss and being treated and considered his mistress; the rapes in Inner Mongolia; different reasons for having an abortion; various forms of abuse, even by a mother of her mentally handicapped daughter; the loss of face; betrayal; and revenge. The second issue is the ‘psychological’, with the power relations and strategies used between different characters, psychological abuse, physical abuse, humiliation, and dependency. The third is the ‘literary’, as when the constant use of metaphors with Chinese cultural references becomes farcical, as Tseen Khoo notes in her article “Selling Sexotica” (2000: 164). Khoo explains that, “in the push for Swallowing Clouds to be many types of novels at once: [that is, erotica, touristic narrative and popular], it fails to be any one particularly successfully” (171). Swallowing Clouds is disturbing, full of stereotypes, and with repeated metaphors, and does not have a clear readership and, as Khoo states: “The explicit and implicit strategies behind the novel embody the enduring perceptions of what exotic, multicultural writing involves—sensationalism, voyeuristic pleasures, and a seemingly deliberate lack of rooted-ness in the Australian socioscape (172). Furthermore, Swallowing Clouds has also been defined as “oriental grunge, mostly because of the progression throughout the narrative from one gritty, exoticised sexual encounter to another” (Khoo 169-70).Other novels which have been described as “grunge” are Edward Berridge´s Lives of the Saints (1995), Justine Ettler´s The River Ophelia (1995), Linda Jaivin´s Eat Me (1995), Andrew McGahan´s Praise (1992) and 1988 (1995), Claire Mendes´ Drift Street (1995) or Christos Tsiolkas´ Loaded (1995) (Michael C). The word “grunge” has clear connotations with “dirtiness”—a further use of pig, but one that is not common in the novel. The vocabulary used during the sexual intercourse and games between Syn and Zhu Zhiyee is, however, coarse, and “the association of sex with coarseness is extremely common” (Pons 344). Pons states that “writing about sex is an attempt to overcome [the barriers of being ashamed of some human bodily functions], regarded as unnecessarily constrictive, and this is what makes it by nature transgressive, controversial” (344-45). Ng´s use of vocabulary in this novel is definitely controversial, indeed, so much so that it has been defined as banal or even farcical (Khoo 169-70).ConclusionThis paper has analysed the use of the words and expressions: “pig”, “pork” and “drowning in a pig’s basket” in Lillian Ng´s Swallowing Clouds. Moreover, the punishment of drowning in a pig’s basket has served as a means to study the topics of desire, transgression and eroticism, in relation to an analysis of the characters of Syn and Zhu Zhiyee, and their relationship. This discussion of various terminology relating to “pig” has also led to the study of the relationship between food and sex, and sex and literature, in this novel. 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