Synopsis of Research in Shanghai (February 15 - May 14)：
Sooter’s project explores how the devastation arising from the Taiping Rebellion [1850- 64], the socio-political upheavals during the last decades of Qing rule, and the influx of global intellectual trends produced the category of “religion” in China, and affected Chinese thought on religious practices. By studying the post-Taiping Qing period, he will interrogate how the modern category of religion was disseminated in conditions of already evolving Chinese intellectual paradigms. His research aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of how Chinese actors engaged and translated foreign knowledge from within their own dynamic milieus, though often on terms that were not of their choosing. Sooter will primarily engage in research at the Shanghai Library and Fudan University Library.