One Sea, One Temple: Digital humanities approaches to Chinese local historical materials in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Over the past 15 years, a group of Earth God temples formed a transnational network linking over 120 temples and ritual communities in port cities across Southeast Asia. This talk explores the significance of these new networks and links them to changes in social media and transportation.

The talk also introduces newly discovered sources on the business and religious networks that have linked the Southeast Asian region together and built up new connections back and forth to China.

About the speaker

Kenneth Dean is Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor in the Humanities Division at Yale-NUS College, and Professor at Department of Chinese Studies, NUS. He has been Cluster Leader of the Religion and Globalisation Cluster at ARI since January 2015, on an 8-year joint appointment as Professor with the Religion and Globalisation Cluster, Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster, and the NUS Department of Chinese Studies.

He received his PhD and MA in Chinese from Stanford University. His recent publications include "Epigraphical Materials on the History of Religion in Fujian: Zhanghou Region" (Fuzhou 2019), "Secularism in South, East, and Southeast Asia" (NY: Palgrave, 2018), co-edited with Peter van der Veer, and "Chinese Epigraphy of Singapore: 1819-1911" (2 vols.) (Singapore: NUS Press, 2017), co-edited with Dr Hue Guan Thye.

He also directed "Bored in Heaven: A Film about Ritual Sensation" (2010), on celebrations around Chinese New Year in Putian, Fujian, China. His other publications include "Ritual Alliances of the Putian Plain," 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2010) (with Zheng Zhenman). His current project involves the construction of two interactive, multi-media databases: Singapore Historical GIS (SHGIS) and Singapore Biographical Database (SBDB).