Title: Associate Professor
Primary Appointment: Institute of Sociology
Tel: +886-3-5715131 ext. 34522
Email: mcku@mx.nthu.edu.tw
Research Areas: Cultural Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Chinese Studies
Research Interests: Tourism and Social Change, Cultural Politics of Heritage, Cultural Governance in Contemporary China

Education

Ph.D: The New School for Social Research, Sociology, Ph.D.
Master’s degree: National Tsing Hua University, Sociology, M.A.
Bachelor's degree: National Taiwan University, Computer Science, B.S.

Professional Experiences

Chair, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University (2022/2 – 2025/1)
Associate Professor, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University (2013/8 – present)
Assistant Professor, Institute of Sociology, National Tsing Hua University (2007/8 – 2013/7)
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Center for Contemporary China, National Tsing Hua University (2006/8 - 2007/7)
Visiting Scholar, Research Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Minister of Science and Technology, Spring 2021
Visiting Scholar, Center for Chinese Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2015
Visiting Scholar, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Spring 2015

Self-Introduction

My research examines the evolving relationship between popular religion and the authoritarian state in contemporary China, with particular focus on how transnational influences shape these dynamics. Using Mazu belief across Taiwan and China as the primary analytical case, I investigate three interconnected themes: the development and transformation of popular religion, transnational mobility of religious practices, and China's religious governance strategies.

My research emerged from a compelling empirical observation—numerous popular religions previously classified as feudal superstition have recently been inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), raising critical questions about the mechanisms driving this transformation and its implications for cultural politics in contemporary China. My work contributes to understanding these phenomena through two major studies. First, in ‘ICH-ization of Popular Religions and the Politics of Recognition in China’ (published in Safeguarding Intangible Heritage), I examine how Chinese popular religions undergo heritagization within the intersection of evolving heritage discourses and the politics of recognition in China. Through comparative analysis, I reveal that community responses to state-sponsored heritagization vary according to three factors: organizational resilience following political campaigns, capacity for negotiating with local state actors, and positioning within the state’s religious classification system. Second, ‘Local Strategies of Engaging the State’ (in Evolutionary Governance in China) analyzes Mazu belief’s transition from feudal superstition to UNESCO representative entry, challenging existing literature that characterizes Chinese heritagization as purely state-driven. Instead, I demonstrate that the 2009 ICH inscription stemmed from belief communities’ efforts since the 1970s religious revival to escape the stigma of feudal superstition and their drive to revive and develop their beliefs. Through more than thirty years of interaction with the state, Mazu belief community leaders have developed path-dependent action patterns, characterized by local collaboration with state policy initiatives. The ICH inscription of Mazu belief represents the culmination of such path-dependent interactions: when China ratified the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention, discursive opportunities surrounding heritage were restructured, enabling Mazu belief community leaders to strategically capitalize on this opening and facilitate the heritagization of popular religion within state-sponsored ICH frameworks.

Beyond heritagization processes, my research investigates how the Chinese state instrumentally deploys popular religions to advance strategic objectives in the context of China’s rise. In ‘Mazu Culture: an Instrument of the Chinese Communist Party Expanding Offshore Influences,’ I analyze the emergence of “Mazu culture” as an official discoursive category, examining how the state transforms popular religious beliefs through “de-religionization” and “culturification” strategies. This process creates depoliticized cultural subjects (“Mazu-ren”) instead of religious believers, emphasizing cultural transmission over religious development. Through analysis of the Chinese Mazu Cultural Exchange Association, I identify an emergent hegemonic pattern in China's popular religious governance: systematically transforming popular religion into depoliticized “culture” to serve as instruments for overseas influence projection, particularly in United Front work toward Taiwan and Belt and Road Initiative cultural diplomacy.

The transnational dimension of this research is further explored in “Access and Friction: The Politics of Mobility in Cross-Strait Mazu Pilgrimage,” which analyzes how Taiwanese belief communities have actively participated in mainland Mazu belief development since the late 1970s through pilgrimage activities. Challenging existing scholarship that emphasizes symbolic hierarchy and temple prestige enhancement, I demonstrate that claims of incense orthodoxy from cross-strait pilgrimage do not consistently enhance temple status. Inspired by mobilities research, I argue that cross-strait pilgrimage involves movement across both political borders and different religious governance regimes. Through comparative analysis spanning three decades, I reveal that differential pilgrimage experiences and mobility capabilities have become significant factors shaping temple hierarchies. Employing access and friction as analytical lenses, the research identifies four factors of the politics of mobilities in cross-strait pilgrimage: constrained access to sacred sites due to Chinese religious governance, encounters with multiple unstable frictions, temple leaders’ preference for attributing the experiences of pilgrimage mobilities to divine efficacy rather than disclosing power dynamics, and mobilities experiences constituted and constrained by leaders’ resource mobilization capabilities in the context of cross-strait politics. These findings illuminate how transnational religious practices intersect with state cultural governance strategies, revealing complex entanglements between mobility politics, cultural legitimation, and authoritarian governance in contemporary China’s management of popular religious traditions.

Teachings

• The politics of mobility
• State and Religion in Contemporary China
• Sociological Methodology
• Sociology of Culture: Theoretical, Traditions and Major Themes
• Theories and Issues in Critical Heritage Studies
• Tourism and Social Change

Publications

• PLEASE CHECK HERE

Services

• Board Member, Taiwanese Sociological Association (2020- present)
• Editorial Board Member, Taiwanese Journal of Sociology (2018/8- 2020/7)
• Editorial Board Member, Taiwanese Sociology (2014- 2015)
• Execute Board Member, Center for Contemporary China, National Tsing Hua University (2012- present)
• Deputy Director, Center for Contemporary China, National Tsing Hua University (2013- 2015/2)
• Research Ethics Committee Member, National Tsing Hua University (2014/8- 2015/1)
• Editor in Chief, Cultural Studies Bimonthly/Cultural Studies Quarterly (2013- 2017)
• Editorial Board Member, Cultural Studies Monthly (2011-2013)
• Board Member, Cultural Studies Association, Taiwan (2011-2016)
• Editor in Chief, Contemporary China Newsletter (2007-2009)