Harui Kuishina! Devotional Yoga in the People's Republic of China

Abstract

Drawing upon a wide range of previously neglected English- and Chinese-language sources, this dissertation offers a history and ethnography of a group of devotional yogis in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) popularly known as Hare Krishnas. As the first major work on either Hinduism or yoga in the country, it challenges previously held assumptions concerning these yogis and the institution to which they belong—the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)—while contributing to a more comprehensive picture of religion in the PRC, which, to date, is based primarily on ethnographic data collected before the Xi Era and from a limited number of religious traditions: so-called popular religion and the five officially recognized by the Chinese state (Buddhism, Daoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam). After providing a brief history of ISKCON, the work explores the ways in which devotional yoga transforms as it encounters the Chinese state. It proposes that the PRC government, while oppressive and self-serving, is, for some devotees, an unlikely source of inspiration. Next, it identifies strategies ISKCON leaders use to position their tradition within the Chinese cultural environment and looks at the various techniques which members use proselytize in the country. It then considers how and why some Chinese have embraced devotional yoga and uncovers the ways in which they are able to maintain and strengthen their faiths despite the PRC’s often hostile conditions. It finds that faith is, in part, bolstered when feelings of certainty spread from one practitioner to another via unconscious affective synchronization. Finally, it argues that current economic and demographic conditions in China offer a chance for ISKCON’s Chinese membership to grow substantially and suggests certain changes which ISKCON might introduce if it wishes to capitalize on the opportunity.