List of Contributors

Abstract

Nikolas Broy is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the East Asia Department and the Collaborative Research Centre ‘Processes of Specialization under the Global Condition’ (SFB 1199) at Leipzig University. He obtained his doctoral degree from Leipzig University with a thesis about Zhaijiao (“Vegetarian Sects”) in 2014. He has worked at the universities of Leipzig, Göttingen, and Hefei (PR China), and he has been a visiting scholar at the Institute of Ethnology at Academia Sinica in 2010 and 2017. His research explores the social history of Chinese religions, particularly Buddhism and popular religious sects, but also deals with method and theory in the study of religion. His current project analyzes the global spread and transcultural proselytization of Yiguandao. His earlier publications include “Martial Monks in Medieval Chinese Buddhism” (2012), “Syncretic Sects and Redemptive Societies: Toward a New Understanding of ‘Sectarianism’ in the Study of Chinese Religions” (2015), and “Modern Buddhism Without Modernity? Zhaijiao (‘Vegetarian Sects’) and the Hidden Genealogy of ‘Humanistic Buddhism’ in Late Imperial China” (2016).