Buddhism for Urbanites Professor Anna Greenspan & Professor - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Buddhism for Urbanites

Professor Anna Greenspan & Professor Francesca Tarocco Final Project 11 December 2019 Connor Schone & Zhebin Huang

Roadmap

• Site: Jing’an Temple, tourist site, religious site
• Research Question: How difgerent kinds of sound elevate the

Jing’an Temple to a site for religious cultivation in Shanghai?

• Identify difgerent sonic elements: natural sounds/religious

sounds -> their significance for religious/urban cultivation

• Final product: video

Field Work

• Two trips to Jing’an T

emple

• First trip focused on mapping the space, noting scenery,

and considering the overall visitor experience.

• Second trip mainly concerned with finding interviewees,

shooting the interview, taking pictures, and filming footages.

Argument

• Jing’an T

emple as a religiously significant space in Shanghai.

• Can also be a place of self-cultivation for a secular audience.
• T

emple’s structural composition separates the interior from urban cityscape.

• A new sonic ecosystem emerges inside the temple that further

distinguishes the space as one for cultivation.

Sources: Natural Sounds

• Significance of natural sounds: the mood it creates
• Sound: immersive, afgective instrument, aura of attraction.
• Senses: receptive, reproductive, simulates an environment

conducive to religious practices and cultivation.

• Natural Sounds - Cultivation
• Following the course of the Nature is all that it takes.
• Architectural design: the temple filters out the disturbing

noises

Sources: Religious Sound

• Significance of Chanting/Worshipping :
• Non-temporal devotion, sacred ofgering to Buddha
• Power vehicle to bring awareness of the Buddha
• Links between the spiritual world and the secular world.

Bibliography

• Chau, Adam Yuet. Religion in Contemporary China: Revitalization and Innovation. London, UNITED

KINGDOM: Routledge, 2011.

• Chen, Pi-yen. “Buddhist Chant, Devotional Song, and Commercial Popular Music: From Ritual to Rock

Mantra.” Ethnomusicology 49, no. 2 (2005): 266–86.

• ———. “The Chant of the Pure and the Music of the Popular: Conceptual Transformations in

Contemporary Chinese Buddhist Chants.” Asian Music 35, no. 2 (2004): 79–97 .

• Greene, Paul D., and Li Wei. “Introduction: Mindfulness and Change in Buddhist Musical Traditions.” Asian

Music 35, no. 2 (2004): 1–6.

• Heller

, Natasha. “Buddha in a Box: The Materiality of Recitation in Contemporary Chinese Buddhism.” Material Religion 10, no. 3 (September 2014): 294–314. https://doi.org/10.2752/175183414X14101642921384.

• Zhuang, Ge. “A Survey of Modern Buddhist Culture in Shanghai.” Chinese Studies in History 46, no. 3

(Spring 2013): 79–94. https://doi.org/10.2753/CSH0009-4633460305.

Video

Thank You