Digital, Transnational Connectivity in Mazu Worship Between China & Singapore

Maritime journeys have historically carried not only people and goods across China & Southeast Asia, but also gods, rituals, and sacred networks. This project will especially examine the worship of Mazu, a Chinese sea goddess originating in Meizhou, China, who stands out for her spread across South China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Historically rooted in maritime migration, Mazu worship has long connected coastal temple communities through ritual exchange, shared sacred landscapes, and financial circulation. Building upon this existing scholarship, my project shifts focus towards contemporary digital practices and their political implications. Employing digital ethnography with in-person fieldwork in Singapore, I will examine how digital platforms are being mobilized to conduct rituals, cultivate diasporic religious identity, and maintain transnational ties between China and Singapore. This research will then explore how Mazu’s digital turn interacts with China and Singapore’s varying degrees of social media surveillance & religious regulation. Supervised by Prof. Rongdao Lai (McGill) and Prof. Jack Meng-Tat Chia (NUS), given NUS’s own extensive institutional research interests on maritime religious networks, conducting an internship through NUS will greatly facilitate rigorous fieldwork and scholarly exchange on discussions pertaining to digital religion, diaspora & migration, and media studies.

Faculty Supervisor:

Rongdao Lai

Student:

Partner:

National University of Singapore

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

McGill University

Program: