Inter-Asian Hinduism in East Asian diasporic nodes through a material lens
Inter-Asian Hinduism in East Asian diasporic nodes through a material lens
East Asia has arguably received the least attention from scholars in comparative and transregional studies of Hinduism and Hindu diasporas. While the Hindu population continues to increase in East Asia, there is still a lack of understanding about the broader analytical significance of this shift. This chapter aims to address this knowledge gap by centring the studies of Hinduism and Hindu diasporas in East Asia in an Inter-Asian research paradigm. Following anthropologist Engseng Ho’s call for reconceptualizing Asia as an Inter-Asian space that is regionally expansive, trans-historical in terms of time, as well as cross-communally interactive, I seek to map out the East Asian diasporic nodes, such as Hong Kong, Yiwu, and Kolkata, in which the material meanings of Inter-Asian Hinduism have been created, transformed, disrupted, and mutated, largely because of the ongoing changes in diasporic flows that could neither be foreseen nor avoided. Precisely due to the transient nature of such diasporic flows, the chapter strategizes a material lens in documenting and analysing the changing meaning of Inter-Asian Hinduism in East Asia, given that concrete materials—including, for example, an abandoned Hindu temple in Hong Kong and made-in-China plastic idols that can be ritually transformed into sacred Hindu objects—are some of the most trackable material objects in the East Asian diasporic nodes.
Hindu diaspora, Hinduism, migration, materiality, Inter-Asia, Hong Kong, China, India
78-91
Cheuk, Ka-Kin
d947dcb4-966e-4c5e-87da-1a3465ea4c3c
21 September 2023
Cheuk, Ka-Kin
d947dcb4-966e-4c5e-87da-1a3465ea4c3c
Cheuk, Ka-Kin
(2023)
Inter-Asian Hinduism in East Asian diasporic nodes through a material lens.
In,
Jacobsen, Knut A.
(ed.)
Hindu Diasporas.
Oxford.
Oxford University Press, .
(doi:10.1093/oso/9780198867692.003.0004).
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Book Section
Abstract
East Asia has arguably received the least attention from scholars in comparative and transregional studies of Hinduism and Hindu diasporas. While the Hindu population continues to increase in East Asia, there is still a lack of understanding about the broader analytical significance of this shift. This chapter aims to address this knowledge gap by centring the studies of Hinduism and Hindu diasporas in East Asia in an Inter-Asian research paradigm. Following anthropologist Engseng Ho’s call for reconceptualizing Asia as an Inter-Asian space that is regionally expansive, trans-historical in terms of time, as well as cross-communally interactive, I seek to map out the East Asian diasporic nodes, such as Hong Kong, Yiwu, and Kolkata, in which the material meanings of Inter-Asian Hinduism have been created, transformed, disrupted, and mutated, largely because of the ongoing changes in diasporic flows that could neither be foreseen nor avoided. Precisely due to the transient nature of such diasporic flows, the chapter strategizes a material lens in documenting and analysing the changing meaning of Inter-Asian Hinduism in East Asia, given that concrete materials—including, for example, an abandoned Hindu temple in Hong Kong and made-in-China plastic idols that can be ritually transformed into sacred Hindu objects—are some of the most trackable material objects in the East Asian diasporic nodes.
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Published date: 21 September 2023
Additional Information:
Ka-Kin Cheuk is Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor in the US) in Anthropology in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. He was formerly Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese and History at the City University of Hong Kong. Trained as an anthropologist, his research revolves around the study of migration, transnationalism, diaspora, and inter-Asian connections, with ethnographic focuses on China, Hong Kong, India, the Middle East, Europe, as well as the US and the UK. His recent publications include ‘Diasporic Convergence, Sustained Transience and Indifferent survival: Indian traders in China’ (History and Anthropology 33, 2022), ‘Funny Money Circulation and Fabric Exports from China to Dubai through Indian Trading Networks’ (American Behavioral Scientist 66, 2022), and ‘Teaching Ethnographic Research Methods in the Time of COVID-19: Virtual Fieldtrips, a Web Symposium, and Public Engagement with Asian American Communities in Houston, Texas’ (Teaching and Learning Anthropology 4, 2021).
Keywords:
Hindu diaspora, Hinduism, migration, materiality, Inter-Asia, Hong Kong, China, India
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Local EPrints ID: 483807
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/483807
PURE UUID: 66829c52-0467-4172-8aee-70d1a99f0b4d
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Date deposited: 06 Nov 2023 18:04
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:09
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Author:
Ka-Kin Cheuk
Editor:
Knut A. Jacobsen
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