In line with the overall focus on the special issue, this article offers a critical evaluation of Welch's writing on Buddhist education. It analyzes the vocabulary and conceptual binaries used by Welch, and assesses the impact of his arguments on the field. The first part of this study will also critically contextualize Welch's publications within a wider range of works that have been published in the Welch and Post-Welch eras. The second part of the article rethinks the research paths that have been undertaken so far and propose new trajectories for an alternative study of Buddhist education. It also suggests adopting the conceptual category of networks in order to unveil connections and dynamics of the actual religion on the ground that remain unexplored. Finally, given the debates that the idea of 'revival' has provoked, this article will conclude with some reflection on if and how we could frame the situation of the Saṅgha education in twentiethcentury China in relation to the revival paradigm.
ARTICLE HISTORY
The interaction between religion and the new media has affected the perception that society has of religion, changed cardinal structures in the relationship between religious practice and religious authorities, and also transformed features and functions of the media. If we look at mainland China today, religious individuals and groups have their own WeChat and Weibo accounts, and internet websites; some believers operate solely in cyberspace and perform rituals online; and commercials often adopt religious symbols to brand nonreligious products. In other words, we find religious people or organizations that use (and even own) different media platforms as channels of communication; we also see that religious imageries are more and more put to use in the secular domain for nonreligious purposes.
This article will analyze how and why Buddhists have resorted to social and digital media and even robotics to preach the Dharma and attract potential new followers, but also to redefine their public image in the wider Chinese society. This study also will ask whether the state has directed or merely engaged with this new Dharma media-enterprise, and in what way. In addressing these questions, one section of this article will explore the creation of the robot-monk Xian’er (at the Longquan Monastery, Beijing). Xian’er’s creation will be considered in relation to similar androids, placed in dialogue with the current debate on the use of robotics in religion, and viewed from posthumanist perspectives.
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