Monika Gänßbauer: Popular Belief in Contemporary China. A Discourse AnalysisAndreas Berndt

ASIEN – Nr. 141 (2016) pp. 98–100

Bochum/Freiburg: projekt verlag, 2015. 169 S., 13,80 EUR

Western publications on Chinese popular belief are quite numerous, but an examination on explicitly Chinese discourses has been missing until now. This gap is now filled by Monika Gänßbauer’s work, which is of essential importance for everyone concerned with research in this area and beyond. Her book discusses fundamental concepts used by Chinese scholars that can be related to western terms of religion. In doing so, the author focuses mainly on what is labeled either as minjian zongjiao (“popular religion”) or minjian xinyang (“popular belief”) within the context of Mainland China. The result is a concise and thoroughly researched study that is also pleasant to read…