Faiths on Display

Reviews / Votes

The editors and authors of this volume constitute a most impressive interdisciplinary cast of experts, collectively shedding light on the cultural, social, and political construction of the emerging 'tourist-pilgrim continuum' and showcasing a wide variety of useful analytical perspectives. Highly recommended for scholars and students in religion, anthropology, sociology, politics, tourism and heritage studies, and cultural studies. -- Adam Yuet Chau, University of Cambridge; author of Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary China This rich and sophisticated collection sets the agenda for studies on faith and tourism. The range and depth of cases is truly impressive and the findings are of major significance for one of the fastest-growing tourist markets in the world. This groundbreaking volume marks a major step forward in studies of tourism in China. -- Mike Crang, Durham University With studies from across a very diverse cultural landscape, Faiths on Display sheds entirely new light on China. For those interested in religion, it reveals one of the most important engines driving the current resurgence. For tourism, it challenges our assumptions that secular travel and religious pilgrimage are fundamentally different. And for anyone interested in China it shows how relations to the state go far beyond simple accommodation and resistance. -- Robert P. Weller, Boston University The first thing I need to say is that I very much enjoyed reading this book, perhaps because for me and my research in China the testimony of the respective chapters corresponded with much of my own experience in that country. . . . While the word 'tourism' rightly appears in the extended title of the book, many of the contributors may not be familiar to scholars in tourism, being for the most part researchers based in Chinese, Asian, and anthropological studies. One advantage of this is a freedom from the constraints of empirical quantitative techniques. Instead, the book's authors adhere to the techniques of participative research and an immersion in the wider culture and literature of the observed phenomena. In short, for the most part these are not the findings of researchers simply handing out questionnaires, but writings sensitive to the nuances indicated above. * Asia Pacific World * This is an excellent book on the revival and invention of cultural heritage and religious practices for tourism and economic development in China. . . . This is an important work containing exciting ethnographies on religious practices and heritage tourism in China. This is rather different from past research on Chinese tourism, which has tended to focus largely on ethnic minorities. This book also encourages us to rethink the relationships between tourism and religion and between state and society, as well as between market and cultural heritage. It should be of interest to researchers working on tourism, religion, and China studies. * The China Journal * Faiths on Display is a book that demands the attention of scholars and students of religion in contemporary China, readers interested in pilgrimage, and anyone interested in the relationship between cultural heritage, tourism, museums, and religion. The diversity in ethnic groups and religious and pseudo-religious (revolutionary) traditions covered by this volume is unparalleled by any comparably scholarly publication on contemporary Chinese religion. It is also a great resource for the study of material culture and religion in Post-Mao China. * Religious Studies Review * This innovative collection of essays sheds new light on a leading facet of the religious revival that is transforming China today, namely its links to that country's burgeoning tourism industry. Based on a wide variety of case studies featuring both Han and non-Han communities, Faiths on Display convincingly identifies tourism as a crucial arena for not only understanding the local forces shaping China's religious revival but also the state's attempts to assert its hegemony over these forces, both in terms of policies and the realm of discourse. . . . Faiths on Display marks a path-breaking achievement in our understanding of key factors that continue to shape China's religious revival, particularly in terms of considering which religious activities are being restored, recycled, or invented anew. . . . In drawing on a wide range of historical and especially ethnographic studies to assess the impact of tourism on China's religious revival, this volume has helped set new agendas that will help shape research on such topics for years to come. This book should also prove invaluable for use in a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses. * Journal of Chinese Religions *