Note: The following listings started as three bibliographic articles published in volumes 3, 4, & 5 respectively of the journal Minjian zongjiao. While oversights are always possible, my co-author Soo Khin Wah and I endeavoured to provide as complete and comprehensive a record as possible, including all Western language publications on Chinese popular religion that appeared in the years 1995, 1996, and 1997. I now continue adding items published after 1997 to the on-line bibliography and welcome suggestions for additional items to be included. Please e-mail me at clart [at] uni-leipzig.de.
I would like to express my gratitude to the following individuals who have helped improve these listings with their suggestions: Nikolas Broy, Adam Yuet Chau, Jack Meng-Tat Chia, Elana Chipman, Thomas DuBois, Silvia Freiin Ebner von Eschenbach, Gareth Fisher, James A. Flath, Vincent Goossaert, Stephen Jones, Keith Knapp, Alison Marshall, Eugenio Menegon, Evelyne Micollier, Daniel L. Overmyer, David Ownby, Peng Mu, Roderich Ptak, Patsy Rahn, Murray Rubinstein, Richard J. Smith, Michael Stanley-Baker, Lydia Thompson, Elena Valussi, Jimmy Yu, and Pascal Zeng.
While the printed Minjian zongjiao bibliographies are merely arranged alphabetically by authors, in the on-line version I group entries by their subject matter so as to make it easier for the reader to track down publications on specific topics. The subject categories are adapted from Laurence G. Thompson's Chinese Religions bibliographies, which are the best bibliographic resource for publications on Chinese popular religion up to 1995. See
(1) Laurence G. Thompson, Chinese Religion in Western Languages: A Comprehensive and Classified Bibliography of Publications in English, French, and German Through 1980. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985.
(2) Laurence G. Thompson & Gary Seaman, Chinese Religions: Publications in Western Languages 1981 Through 1990. Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 1993.
(3) Laurence G. Thompson & Gary Seaman, Chinese Religions: Publications in Western Languages. Volume 3: 1991-1995. Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 1998.
Specifically on Taiwanese popular religion, the best bibliography available is Lin Mei-rong's Taiwan minjian xinyang yanjiu shumu (A Bibliography of Taiwanese Folk Religion), published by the Institute of Ethnology at the Academia Sinica in 1997 (2nd edition). It is particularly strong on publications in Chinese, but also has a good coverage of Western language materials up to about 1996.
Two new Chinese-language journals (Minjian zongjiao and Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu tongxun) contain a wealth of current scholarship on popular religion. See their tables of content at http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~clartp/tocs2.html.
BY YEAR OF PUBLICATION
SUBJECT CATEGORIES
1. Popular Religion: General Studies
3. Local Studies: Mainland China
5. Local Studies: Hong Kong & Overseas
8. Religious Calendar, Festivals, Popular Customs
9. Temples & Mountains, Pilgrimage
10. Ritual
11. Myth & Folklore
12. Divination
14. Death, Afterlife, Tombs, Ancestral Cult
15. Sects, Secret Societies, New Religions
17. Popular Religion, the State, & Local Society
18. Popular Religion in Scriptures, Tracts, Inscriptions, Literature & Drama
19. Popular Religion & (Folk) Art
20. Popular Religion and Other Religious Traditions
These listings were last updated on: February 7, 2023.