The Religious Question in Modern China $1VINCENTGOOSSAERT$1DAVID A. PALMER$1SHUK-WAH POON

摘要

[By 2008 ] ... "over a century of campaigns had not wiped religion out. Religion was booming, and a confident Chinese state was increasingly willing to compose with it opening a new chapter in the history of religion in Chinese society" (Goossacrt and Palmer, p. 3). These two excellent books tell the complex story behind this new chapter, from the late 19th century on, with Goossaert and Palmer surveying the whole scene in rich detail, and Poon providing a case study of one important city through the Republican period. Both studies emphasize the relationship of the state to religious practices and beliefs, and devote much discussion to the activities of ordinary people. These are a particular concern for Shuk-Wah Poon"s book, the primary sources for which are local newspapers from the late Qing and Republican periods, and reports from the Guangzhou municipal government. Poon, an assistant professor at Lingnan University, discusses the appropriation of temples by the local government in 1921-23 during the period when Sun Yatsen and his son Sun Ke were mayors. A total of 570 temples were put up for sale, some to the very communities from which they had been confiscated!