Scholarly interest in print culture and in the study of religion in modern China has increased
in recent years propelled by maturing approaches to the study of cultural history and by a
growing recognition that both were important elements of China's recent past. The influence of
China in the contemporary world continues to expand and with it has come an urgent need to
understand the processes by which its modern history was made. Issues of religious freedom and
of religion's influence on the public sphere continue to be contentious but important subjects
of scholarly work and the role of print and textual media has not dimmed with the advent of
electronic communication. This book Religious Publishing and Print Culture in Modern China
1800-2012 speaks to these contemporary and historical issues by bringing to light the
important and abiding connections between religious development and modern print culture in
China. Bringing together these two subjects has a great deal of potential for producing
insights that will appeal to scholars working in a range of fields from media studies to
social historians.Each chapter demonstrates how focusing on the role of publishing among
religious groups in modern China generates new insights and raises new questions. They examine
how religious actors understood the role of printed texts in religion dealt with issues of
translation and exegesis produced print media that heralded social and ideological changes
and expressed new self-understandings in their published works. They also address the impact of
new technologies such as mechanized movable type and lithographic presses in the production
and meaning of religious texts. Finally the chapters identify where religious print culture
crossed confessional lines connecting religious traditions through links of shared textual
genres commercial publishing companies and the contributions of individual editors and
authors. This book thus demonstrates how in embracing modern print media and building upon
their longstanding traditional print cultures Christian Buddhist Daoist and popular
religious groups were developed and defined in modern China. While the chapter authors are
specialists in religious traditions they have made use of recent studies into publishing and
print culture and like many of the subjects of their research are able to make connections
across religious boundaries and link together seemingly discrete traditions.
