Li Ma – författare

This book offers a unique historical documentation of the development of the ambitious religious entrepreneurism by leaders of the Early Rain church (and later Western China Presbytery leadership), in an effort to gain social influence in China through local institution-building and global public image management. It unravels the social processes of how this Christian community with a public image of defending religious freedom in China was undermined by an internal loss of moral authority.

Based on publicly available texts from Chinese social media that aren’t readily available in the West as well as in-depth interviews, it is framed by existing scholarship in social theories of the public sphere, charismatic domination in social transition, and the role of power in organizational behaviour. These churches’ stories show how Christianity, which has long been politically marginalized in communist China, has not only adapted and challenged the socio-political status quo, but how it was also ironically shaped by the political culture.

This is an insightful and critical ethnographic study of one of modern China’s most famous house churches. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Religion in China as well as those working in Religious Studies, Asian studies, Chinese studies, and Mission Studies more generally.

This book offers a unique historical documentation of the development of the ambitious religious entrepreneurism by leaders of the Early Rain church (and later Western China Presbytery leadership), in an effort to gain social influence in China through local institution-building and global public image management. It unravels the social processes of how this Christian community with a public image of defending religious freedom in China was undermined by an internal loss of moral authority.

Based on publicly available texts from Chinese social media that aren’t readily available in the West as well as in-depth interviews, it is framed by existing scholarship in social theories of the public sphere, charismatic domination in social transition, and the role of power in organizational behaviour. These churches’ stories show how Christianity, which has long been politically marginalized in communist China, has not only adapted and challenged the socio-political status quo, but how it was also ironically shaped by the political culture.

This is an insightful and critical ethnographic study of one of modern China’s most famous house churches. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Religion in China as well as those working in Religious Studies, Asian studies, Chinese studies, and Mission Studies more generally.

This book focuses on the #MeToo movement in China, critically examining how three competing ideologies have worked in co-opting #MeToo activism: China’s official communism, Western neoliberalism, and an emerging Chinese cyber feminism.

In 2018, China’s #MeToo cyber activism initially maintained its momentum despite strict censorship, presenting women’s voices against gendered violence and revealing scripts of power in different sectors of society. Eventually though it lost impetus with sloganization and stigmatization under a trio of forces of pressures: corporate corruption, over-politicization by Western media, and continued state censorship. The book documents the social events and gendered norms in higher education, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), business, and religious circles that preceded and followed high-profile cases of alleged sexual abuses in mainland China, engaging with sociological scholarship relating to demoralization and power, media studies, and gender studies. Through these entwined theories the author seeks to give both scholars and the general audience in gender studies a window into the ongoing tension in the power spheres of state, market, and gendered hierarchy in contemporary Chinese society.

This book will be of interest to students of gender studies, China studies, media studies, and cultural studies

This book focuses on the #MeToo movement in China, critically examining how three competing ideologies have worked in co-opting #MeToo activism: China’s official communism, Western neoliberalism, and an emerging Chinese cyber feminism.

In 2018, China’s #MeToo cyber activism initially maintained its momentum despite strict censorship, presenting women’s voices against gendered violence and revealing scripts of power in different sectors of society. Eventually though it lost impetus with sloganization and stigmatization under a trio of forces of pressures: corporate corruption, over-politicization by Western media, and continued state censorship. The book documents the social events and gendered norms in higher education, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), business, and religious circles that preceded and followed high-profile cases of alleged sexual abuses in mainland China, engaging with sociological scholarship relating to demoralization and power, media studies, and gender studies. Through these entwined theories the author seeks to give both scholars and the general audience in gender studies a window into the ongoing tension in the power spheres of state, market, and gendered hierarchy in contemporary Chinese society.

This book will be of interest to students of gender studies, China studies, media studies, and cultural studies