Online Religion in Contemporary China
Mengyuan Tian, RSAA Travel Awards 2024 recipient, 9 July 2025, 14.00 BST Online
In this lecture, Mengyuan Tian, will provide a fresh perspective on religious activities in contemporary China as she looks at official online worship ceremonies and how the changing politics of culture and official ideology have shaped religious routines in the digital era. Based on her PhD research, this lecture will focus on the case study of an online Yellow Emperor worship ceremony programmed in Henan, Shaanxi, and Zhejiang provinces, examining the various channels used for conducting online religious rituals such as live streaming, online worship services and video games. The research identifies three specific phases of digitisation in the practice of Yellow Emperor worship. The first phase, starting in the 2000s, is characterised by video uploading and global broadcasting with an emphasis on mirroring reality. The second phase introduced web-based ancestor worship with interactive participation through websites and social media. The third phase, which is still emerging in the 2020s, is exemplified by the meta-universe worship platform in video games.
Mengyuan Tian is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern, working on the topic of the governmental involvement in the reconstruction of the Yellow Emperor Worship Ceremony in contemporary China. Her research interest lies in the state’s involvement, motivations, and strategies in the revival of popular religion; faith construction, nation-building, and the political apparatus behind; digitisation, commercialisation, and secularisation of religious practices.
Guest Host
Professor Astrid Nordin holds the Lau Chair of Chinese International Relations in the Lau China Institute. She is also Associate Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
Astrid’s research develops critical conceptual tools that draw on Chinese and other global traditions of thought, and uses these to understand global challenges as they relate to China’s growing global role – from the Belt and Road Initiative, through support for overseas Chinese communities, to practices of censorship and resistance.
Before joining King’s in 2021, Astrid was Professor of World Politics and Founding Director of Lancaster University China Centre. She has significant experience developing institutional partnerships with Chinese institutions, setting up and leading academic organisations, and collaborating on interdisciplinary projects.
