Chinese Buddhist Laywomen in the Late 20th Century: A Study Case

Conférence de LIANG Yan, Université des Minorités du Sud-Ouest et chercheuse invitée à l’Inalco, Paris, dans le cadre du séminaire «Pouvoir et société de la Chine post-Tiananmen (1989-2022)» de Mme la professeure Laure ZHANG

Salle 408 IFAGE

« This study explores the experiences and efforts of Chinese women born after the 1980s to seek spiritual resources from Buddhism in a specific historical and social context to find themselves and explore themselves in a patriarchal Chinese society, based on continuous fieldwork and case records of female Buddhist monks in Chinese society during the period 2009-2020. The 36-year-long strict implementation of the one-child policy objectively played a key role in the disintegration of the structure of traditional Chinese society, as the core institution of traditional Chinese peasant society, « 传宗接代, » and the concept and structural maintenance of patriarchy encountered significant challenges due to the presence of a large number of one-child girls generated by the one-child policy. The social system and social culture built around patriarchal society and « 传宗接代 » are also far from satisfying the class of only-children who have huge social resources, and to a certain extent, it can even be said that society does not provide them with the corresponding spiritual space and social position. Therefore, they actively search for alternative spiritual resources in Chinese society, and Buddhism is one of the few effective options for them because of its equality and certain isolation from society. »

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