Date of Award

6-27-2025

Date Published

August 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Religion

Advisor(s)

Gareth Fisher

Keywords

Daoism, Martial Arts, Neo-Traditionalism, Nostalgia, Traditional Culture

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Religion

Abstract

This dissertation is a study of communities engaged with traditional Daoist culture (chuantong daojia wenhua 传统道家文化) in Wudang shan, Hubei, PRC. It seeks to explain the convergence of domestic and global populations for engagements with the Daoist environments, institutions, practices, and social communities on and around the famous Daoist mountain in a burgeoning marketplace of Daoist cultivation. Drawing upon primarily ethnographic data from two years in the area between 2018 and 2021, it examines how Wudang's Daoist culture fits into the context of a broader traditional cultural revival (chuantong wenhua fuxing 传统文化复兴) in China and a global nostalgic orientation that imputes value into the past for the uses of the present moment. Feeling a loss or lack in their lives, middle class and entrepreneurial individuals sought alternatives to their empty, taxing, and inauthentic lives by turning to traditional Daoism as a path back into a lost authenticity, meaning, well-being, and potential spiritual enchantment. The four chapters of this dissertation address different aspects of this nostalgic neo-traditionalism: 1) the presentation of Wudang as an enchanted place giving birth to and born of Daoist traditions; 2) the interactions with and incorporations into lineage as a way of rooting the self in tradition; 3) the articulations of cultivation as a secular spiritual path to authenticity; and 4) the quests after Daoism as a therapeutic alternative culture of slow-paced interpersonal authenticity. In doing so, it examines a neglected part of Daoism’s shifting presence in post-Mao China aimed at a middle class lay public of modern consumers seeking therapeutic health practices and holistic well-being. It also adds to our understanding of Chinese secularism and global spirituality by looking at Daoist cultural institutions offering cultivation as a path to moral, physical, and spiritual growth.

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Open Access

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