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Field sites
Because the role of Daoists in temple life was partly shaped by China-wide forces (the regulatory state, the Daoist association, clerical traditions such as the Quanzhen) and partly by local ones, we do not want to focus on one locale, but to explore and compare three clusters of field sites: the greater Hangzhou 杭州 area, the lower Han River valley around the cities of Wuhan 武漢 and Nanyang 南陽, and cities in Guangdong province — Guangzhou 廣州 and Meizhou 梅州.
The choice of these three areas is dictated by several motives. First, they balance a two coastal areas with an inland area, while documenting a variety of cities, from the largest, most open to outside influences (Guangzhou) to the more medium-size, “traditional” (Nanyang). Second, these areas have been relatively little studied in terms of modern religious history when compared to other cities such as Peking and Shanghai, and thus offer the potential for renewing our views of modern Chinese urban religion. Third, available documentation is quite large in both cases (temple and monastic gazetteers; newspapers; archival resources). Last but not least, we have dedicated local scholars and informants willing to work on this project in these three sites and the fieldwork opportunities are excellent, with lively and very active temples.
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