David A. PALMER

I’m an anthropologist whose research has previously focused primarily on Daoism and on the modern changes and transformations of Chinese society and religion. In recent years, I’ve taken an interest in the transnational circulations of Daoism among spiritual practitioners in contemporary America, in new religious movements in Vietnam in the early 20th century, and in the traditional culture of the Lanten Yao ethnic group on the China-Laos-Vietnam borderland. I’ve also done research on religious cosmopolitanism associated with Asian colonial modernity; and I coordinated an exchange programme between scholars of religion based in India, China and Indonesia. All of these experiences excited my interest to learn more about religious circulations and influences in between China and the rest of Asia in the modern and contemporary era, and led me to wonder how the expanding Chinese presence and infrastructures in the region affects these circulations and influences. Through the “Infrastructures of Faith: Religious Mobilities on the Belt and Road” collaborative project, I was able to explore these questions with a team of outstanding scholars and experts on several countries and religions in the BRI region. One thing I discovered through my more recent field research in Nepal, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa is that the religious dimension can’t be separated from local socio-political and cultural realities. Thus, in the new phase of our work, we have taken “Global China, Local Cultures” as our frame. I’m grateful to the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and to the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and the Social Sciences for creating the conditions for this project. See here for my academic bio.