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Daniel M. Murray

Ashoka University, Centre for China Studies, Post-Doc

McGill University, East Asian Studies, Adjunct

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I am an Ashoka University and Harvard-Yenching Institute China Studies Postdoctoral Fellow. My research focuses on religion in modern China. Specifically, I am working on a project about communal temples and urbanization in Xiamen, a coastal city in Southwest China.

Previously, I was an Assistant Teaching Professor in Religious Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. I completed my MA in Religious Studies at Queen’s University and PhD in East Asian Studies at McGill University. I was a visiting doctoral fellow in the Department of History at Xiamen University and studied Chinese language at Sichuan University and National Taiwan Normal University.

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Aspen E Brinton

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Anna Boncompagni

University of California, Irvine

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Peer Reviewed Articles by Daniel M. Murray

The City God Returns: Organized and Contagious Networks at the Xiamen City God Temple

Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2018

This paper explores the revival and current networks of the Xiamen City God temple in Southeast C... more This paper explores the revival and current networks of the Xiamen City God temple in Southeast China. I divide the networks into two forms: the first is organised and composed of systematically and consciously structured networks; the second is contagious, made up of networks that are more unwieldy and impossible to fully map as they are formed through the affective intensity of ritual events. The two forms of networks are mutually dependent: without the donations and participation generated through organised networks, the ritual events would never take place; without the ritual events that generate networks of contagion, there would be no interest or reason to support the temple and the god’s efficacy would be seen in decline.

Daoism in Brazil: The Globalization of the Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi) Tradition

Journal of Daoist Studies, Jan 1, 2013

Book Reviews by Daniel M. Murray

Review of Contemporary Religions in China by Shawn Arthur (Routledge, 2019).

Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion, 2020

http://readingreligion.org/books/contemporary-religions-china

Review of Religion in China: Ties that Bind by Adam Yuet Chau (Polity Press, 2019).

Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion, 2020

http://readingreligion.org/books/religion-china

Review of Place/No-Place in Urban Asian Religiosity edited by Joanne Punzo Waghorne (Springer 2016)

Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion., 2017

http://readingreligion.org/books/place-no-place-urban-asian-religiosity

Review: Daoist Priests of the Li Family: Ritual Life in Village China

Journal of Chinese Religions, 2018

Talks by Daniel M. Murray

Cosmologies beyond the Kingdom: the role of shared cosmology in connecting Chinese communities in Southeast Asia

Collogque du CCEASE, CCSEAS Conference. Montreal., 2013

This paper will analyze the development of organization between the various Chinese communities i... more This paper will analyze the development of organization between the various Chinese communities in colonial Singapore. In the epigraphy from temples, medical clinics, and schools that were constructed by multiple dialect groups there is a creative negotiation of regional identities separate from the Chinese nationalism that was building within China. While the Chinese communities generally saw themselves as distinct from each other, they were also drawn together by their cosmological ties. Through these transdialect connections seen in epigraphical material, this paper will analyze the ways in which shared cosmology brought disparate Chinese groups together in forms wholly distinct from modern nationalism. While much research has been conducted on the rise of Chinese nationalism and the creation of ethnic divisions in China, there has been little work on the importance of cosmology and religion in these fields. Studies of the rise of political nationalism or continued presence of cultural nationalism in China have appeared in a multitude of forms, be it Confucian culturalism, transnational cultural citizenship, or political ideologies from perspectives of both Chinese the nation-state and various diaspora groups. However, rather than a linear creation of a single nationalism that then effected other forms, I see this as a multi-layered process of various allegiances in local, regional, and national or empire-wide forms, which prior to the 1900s, and the rise of modern Chinese nationalism proper, were bound by ideas about the cosmos. Many former subjects of the Qing who migrated elsewhere and their descendents in Southeast Asia were caught up in this multitude of overlaid networks to local ancestors and gods, larger regional and national gods, the state cosmology, and capitalist trade that aligned overseas Chinese with European imperial powers. In this paper I will focus on the life and networks of one figure, Cheong Hong Lim (章芳琳 Zhang Fanglin, 1825-1893), a Singapore born Chinese, wealthy merchant, and philanthropist, who exemplifies how Chinese in Singapore could be part of various overlapping networks that would shift, break, and expand over time and place connecting them to multiple groups in Singapore, China, and elsewhere through flows of capital and various material goods, and also through religious and educational practices. Cheong Hong Lim's Multilayered Networks Cheong Hong Lim (章芳琳 Zhang Fanglin, 1825-1893) 1 has already appeared in various 1 I follow the dialect transliteration for names of people who are commonly known as such in scholarship. Additionally, since there are numerous Cheong's in this story, they will be referred to by their personal name (for example, Cheong Hong Lim will be referred to as Hong Lim) rather than their family name in order to avoid confusion.

Teaching Documents by Daniel M. Murray

Critical Reading and Writing: Religion & Violence

Office hours can be used to discuss the course material, assignments you are working on, difficul... more Office hours can be used to discuss the course material, assignments you are working on, difficulties you are having in the class, or anything else you need to contact me about. ▪ While courses are taught remotely, send an email or message over BrightSpace if you want to meet during office hours. Course Overview This course examines the relationship between religion and violence through various case studies. It will consider what religious groups say about violence, when they abstain from it or condone it; how the public, media, and scholarship represent religious groups in connection to violence; and how violent acts connect religion and politics. Although there is a long history of religion and violence, we will focus on more recent topics. The course is divided into five short units. The first looks at the concepts of religion and violence more generally. Unit 2 addresses ethno-religious nationalist movements in India and Myanmar. Unit 3 consider the rhetoric of terrorism and how it has been used as a tool for religious suppression in China. Unit 4 looks at the connection between religion and white supremacist violence in America. Finally, unit 5 focuses on the terrorist attacks of the Japanese New Religious Movement Aum Shinrikyo and its successor group the Aleph. Critical Reading and Writing This is a Critical Reading and Writing course so we will focus on improving your skills in academic writing, rhetorical styles, and critical thinking. We will do this through a series of short assignments that will build up to a final research paper as well as short worksheets that address the assigned readings directly. Content Warning This course is about violence so you may find some of the content disturbing or upsetting and the ideas of many of the groups studied offensive and racist. As such, please try to be sensitive about comments you make during in-class discussion. If you have any concerns, please bring them up with me. Remote Learning Memorial will be a primarily remote teaching and learning environment until January 31. During that time, courses will be conducted via Online Rooms on the courses BrightSpace page (under the Communication tab). While I encourage you to try to attend during the normal class schedule, if you are unable to attend due to problems with internet connectivity, all the sessions will be recorded and available to watch after the class. Class Format The class will be a mix of lectures and discussions. Students are welcome to raise questions or comments during the lecture sections of class. We will discuss the main topics of the readings and work through different skills in academic reading and writing using worksheets that connect to the readings.

Daoist and Buddhist Apocalypses Syllabus

The Great Urban Transformation: Cities in Modern China

Course Syllabus, 2019

EAST 303: Religion in Modern China

Section 001, Winte 0018, R2 09:35 M 11:30 M , Bi ks Biildin 2oo-10

Traduções by Daniel M. Murray

A Sociedade Taoísta do Brasil e a globalização do Daoísmo da Ortodoxia Unitária (tradução)

by Daniel M. Murray, Matheus Costa 马德武, and Fábio L Stern

Religare, Dec 2015

Fora de contexto cultural chinês, o Daoísmo é frequentemente associado a práticas de cultivo físi... more Fora de contexto cultural chinês, o Daoísmo é frequentemente associado a práticas de cultivo físico, tais como qìgōng ou tàijí quán, em vez de linhagens tradicionais de Quánzhēn ou Zhèngyī e como uma religião hierarquicamente organizada. A Sociedade Taoísta do Brasil, no entanto, é um exemplo de prática daoísta não chinesa associada à tradição Zhèngyī (Ortodoxia Unitária). Os Sacerdotes brasileiros ordenados pela Sociedade realizam rituais diante de uma congregação majoritariamente leiga e não chinesa. O resultado é uma forma cultural híbrida de prática daoísta que fornece uma visão sobre como o Daoísmo está se transformando através da globalização.

The City God Returns: Organized and Contagious Networks at the Xiamen City God Temple

Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2018

This paper explores the revival and current networks of the Xiamen City God temple in Southeast C... more This paper explores the revival and current networks of the Xiamen City God temple in Southeast China. I divide the networks into two forms: the first is organised and composed of systematically and consciously structured networks; the second is contagious, made up of networks that are more unwieldy and impossible to fully map as they are formed through the affective intensity of ritual events. The two forms of networks are mutually dependent: without the donations and participation generated through organised networks, the ritual events would never take place; without the ritual events that generate networks of contagion, there would be no interest or reason to support the temple and the god’s efficacy would be seen in decline.

Daoism in Brazil: The Globalization of the Orthodox Unity (Zhengyi) Tradition

Journal of Daoist Studies, Jan 1, 2013

Review of Contemporary Religions in China by Shawn Arthur (Routledge, 2019).

Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion, 2020

http://readingreligion.org/books/contemporary-religions-china

Review of Religion in China: Ties that Bind by Adam Yuet Chau (Polity Press, 2019).

Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion, 2020

http://readingreligion.org/books/religion-china

Review of Place/No-Place in Urban Asian Religiosity edited by Joanne Punzo Waghorne (Springer 2016)

Reading Religion: A Publication of the American Academy of Religion., 2017

http://readingreligion.org/books/place-no-place-urban-asian-religiosity

Review: Daoist Priests of the Li Family: Ritual Life in Village China

Journal of Chinese Religions, 2018

Cosmologies beyond the Kingdom: the role of shared cosmology in connecting Chinese communities in Southeast Asia

Collogque du CCEASE, CCSEAS Conference. Montreal., 2013

This paper will analyze the development of organization between the various Chinese communities i... more This paper will analyze the development of organization between the various Chinese communities in colonial Singapore. In the epigraphy from temples, medical clinics, and schools that were constructed by multiple dialect groups there is a creative negotiation of regional identities separate from the Chinese nationalism that was building within China. While the Chinese communities generally saw themselves as distinct from each other, they were also drawn together by their cosmological ties. Through these transdialect connections seen in epigraphical material, this paper will analyze the ways in which shared cosmology brought disparate Chinese groups together in forms wholly distinct from modern nationalism. While much research has been conducted on the rise of Chinese nationalism and the creation of ethnic divisions in China, there has been little work on the importance of cosmology and religion in these fields. Studies of the rise of political nationalism or continued presence of cultural nationalism in China have appeared in a multitude of forms, be it Confucian culturalism, transnational cultural citizenship, or political ideologies from perspectives of both Chinese the nation-state and various diaspora groups. However, rather than a linear creation of a single nationalism that then effected other forms, I see this as a multi-layered process of various allegiances in local, regional, and national or empire-wide forms, which prior to the 1900s, and the rise of modern Chinese nationalism proper, were bound by ideas about the cosmos. Many former subjects of the Qing who migrated elsewhere and their descendents in Southeast Asia were caught up in this multitude of overlaid networks to local ancestors and gods, larger regional and national gods, the state cosmology, and capitalist trade that aligned overseas Chinese with European imperial powers. In this paper I will focus on the life and networks of one figure, Cheong Hong Lim (章芳琳 Zhang Fanglin, 1825-1893), a Singapore born Chinese, wealthy merchant, and philanthropist, who exemplifies how Chinese in Singapore could be part of various overlapping networks that would shift, break, and expand over time and place connecting them to multiple groups in Singapore, China, and elsewhere through flows of capital and various material goods, and also through religious and educational practices. Cheong Hong Lim's Multilayered Networks Cheong Hong Lim (章芳琳 Zhang Fanglin, 1825-1893) 1 has already appeared in various 1 I follow the dialect transliteration for names of people who are commonly known as such in scholarship. Additionally, since there are numerous Cheong's in this story, they will be referred to by their personal name (for example, Cheong Hong Lim will be referred to as Hong Lim) rather than their family name in order to avoid confusion.

Critical Reading and Writing: Religion & Violence

Office hours can be used to discuss the course material, assignments you are working on, difficul... more Office hours can be used to discuss the course material, assignments you are working on, difficulties you are having in the class, or anything else you need to contact me about. ▪ While courses are taught remotely, send an email or message over BrightSpace if you want to meet during office hours. Course Overview This course examines the relationship between religion and violence through various case studies. It will consider what religious groups say about violence, when they abstain from it or condone it; how the public, media, and scholarship represent religious groups in connection to violence; and how violent acts connect religion and politics. Although there is a long history of religion and violence, we will focus on more recent topics. The course is divided into five short units. The first looks at the concepts of religion and violence more generally. Unit 2 addresses ethno-religious nationalist movements in India and Myanmar. Unit 3 consider the rhetoric of terrorism and how it has been used as a tool for religious suppression in China. Unit 4 looks at the connection between religion and white supremacist violence in America. Finally, unit 5 focuses on the terrorist attacks of the Japanese New Religious Movement Aum Shinrikyo and its successor group the Aleph. Critical Reading and Writing This is a Critical Reading and Writing course so we will focus on improving your skills in academic writing, rhetorical styles, and critical thinking. We will do this through a series of short assignments that will build up to a final research paper as well as short worksheets that address the assigned readings directly. Content Warning This course is about violence so you may find some of the content disturbing or upsetting and the ideas of many of the groups studied offensive and racist. As such, please try to be sensitive about comments you make during in-class discussion. If you have any concerns, please bring them up with me. Remote Learning Memorial will be a primarily remote teaching and learning environment until January 31. During that time, courses will be conducted via Online Rooms on the courses BrightSpace page (under the Communication tab). While I encourage you to try to attend during the normal class schedule, if you are unable to attend due to problems with internet connectivity, all the sessions will be recorded and available to watch after the class. Class Format The class will be a mix of lectures and discussions. Students are welcome to raise questions or comments during the lecture sections of class. We will discuss the main topics of the readings and work through different skills in academic reading and writing using worksheets that connect to the readings.

Daoist and Buddhist Apocalypses Syllabus

The Great Urban Transformation: Cities in Modern China

Course Syllabus, 2019

EAST 303: Religion in Modern China

Section 001, Winte 0018, R2 09:35 M 11:30 M , Bi ks Biildin 2oo-10

A Sociedade Taoísta do Brasil e a globalização do Daoísmo da Ortodoxia Unitária (tradução)

by Daniel M. Murray, Matheus Costa 马德武, and Fábio L Stern

Religare, Dec 2015

Fora de contexto cultural chinês, o Daoísmo é frequentemente associado a práticas de cultivo físi... more Fora de contexto cultural chinês, o Daoísmo é frequentemente associado a práticas de cultivo físico, tais como qìgōng ou tàijí quán, em vez de linhagens tradicionais de Quánzhēn ou Zhèngyī e como uma religião hierarquicamente organizada. A Sociedade Taoísta do Brasil, no entanto, é um exemplo de prática daoísta não chinesa associada à tradição Zhèngyī (Ortodoxia Unitária). Os Sacerdotes brasileiros ordenados pela Sociedade realizam rituais diante de uma congregação majoritariamente leiga e não chinesa. O resultado é uma forma cultural híbrida de prática daoísta que fornece uma visão sobre como o Daoísmo está se transformando através da globalização.