Diaspora and Belief : Globalisation, Religion and Identity in Postcolonial Asia

Contents: Foreword. I. Religion and globalisation in postcolonial Asia: globalisation, secularization and identify: 1. The culture(s) of globalisation: religion, identity and citizenship. 2. Cultural studies and the cultural politics of Asian religion. 3. Asia in Europe\'s imaginary: disciplinary knowledges and the (Mis)representation of cultures. 4. After orientalism: postcolonialism, culture and globalisation. II. Japan and the globalisation of religion in Southeast Asia: 5. Changing worlds: transnationalism and the flow of religious symbols and beliefs. 6. The local, the regional and the global: Soka Gakkai and the spread of Japanese religious cultures in Southeast Asia. 7. Globalisation, new religions and the contemporary re-imagining of Japanese identity. 8. Globalisation and citizenship in Japan: new identity politics in a post-bubble economy. III. Postcolonial reconstruction of religion: 9. The politics of religious memory: Confucianism and reinvention of patriarchy. 10. The crisis of Asian modernity: Buddhism, development and postcolonial theory in the thought of Sulak Sivaraksa. IV. Religion and popular culture: 11. Religion, popular culture and cultural communication in contemporary Asia. Bibliography. Index.

"In the burgeoning study of globalization the study of religion has been sorely neglected. Yet despite the inroads of modernization, the societies of south, southeast and East Asia remain deeply permeated by religion. Issues of identity, cultural politics and citizenship are all fundamentally influenced by religious affiliation. This volume explores the relationship between globalization and religion in contemporary post-colonial Asia a situation in which new found political and cultural autonomy, far from leading to the widespread secularization predicted by many a generation ago, has stimulated the flourishing of both traditional and new forms of religious expression. This study examines the interplay between history, the contemporary consumer capitalism and its attendant forms of popular culture that are making inroads all over Asia, and the deeply held religious beliefs and institutional memberships on which many national, regional and local identities still fundamentally depend and which set up the complex social, cultural and personal negotiations and revisionings that arise when tradition meets globalization. In a world of increasing religious polarization signaled by the putative "clash of civilizations", the exploration of these dynamics is empirically and politically important and also holds many implications for the field of cultural studies as a whole, east and west." (jacket)