By /

Jack Meng-Tat Chia

Jack Chia

Profile: https://discovery.nus.edu.sg/6833-jack-mengtat-chia

Jack Meng-Tat Chia is Foo Hai Fellow in Buddhist Studies and Associate Professor of History at the National University of Singapore. He is a historian of religion specializing in the study of Buddhism and Chinese religions in Southeast Asia. He is the author of Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity Across the South China Sea (Oxford, 2020), which was awarded the 2021 EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize and shortlisted for the 2023 Friedrich Weller Prize. This book was recently translated into Indonesian under the title Kiprah Para Mahabiksu: Agama Buddha dan Modernitas di Asia Tenggara Maritim (Karaniya, 2022), and a Chinese translation is underway. He has also published articles in journals such as Asian Ethnology, China Quarterly, Contemporary Buddhism, Critical Asian Studies, History of Religions, Journal of Chinese Religions, and Journal of Religious History. He is currently working on two book projects: Buddhayana: The Making of an Indonesian Buddhist Movement, and Diplomatic Dharma: Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia, which is supported by the 2020 Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship awarded by the Social Science Research Council Singapore.

Chia is the chair of the Buddhist Studies Group and the convenor of the GL Louis Religious Pluralism Research Cluster at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He co-chairs the Theravada Studies Group of the Association for Asian Studies, and serves as an executive board of director for Society for the Study of Chinese Religions. He is an editor of the Asian Culture journal and Journal of Global Buddhism, and serves on the editorial boards of Contemporary Buddhism, Journal of Chinese Religions, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Reading Religion, Studies on Humanistic Buddhism, and Yin-Cheng Journal of Contemporary Buddhism.

Born and raised in Singapore, Chia received his PhD in History at Cornell University, where his dissertation won the Lauriston Sharp Prize. He earned his BA (Hons) and MA in History from the National University of Singapore and his second MA in East Asian Studies from Harvard University, where he was a Harvard-Yenching Fellow. Prior to joining NUS, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Buddhist Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

For more information on his research, visit www.jackchia.com

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
  • Buddhism in Maritime Southeast Asia
  • Buddhist Diaspora
  • Buddhist Diplomacy
  • Chinese Popular Religion
  • South China Sea

TEACHING AREAS:
  • Engaging Asia: A Global History
  • Buddhism in World History
  • Buddhism in Southeast Asian History
  • Approaches to the Study of Southeast Asian History
  • Graduate Research Seminar

GRADUATE SUPERVISION:

A/Prof Chia is happy to supervise research students in the areas of Buddhism in China and Southeast Asia. Applicants interested to work on Buddhism should indicate their interest in being considered for the FASS Scholarship in Buddhist Studies and/or the Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery in Buddhist Studies.


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Books and Edited Volumes:

  • Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity Across the South China Sea. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
  • “Beyond the Mainland: Buddhist Communities in Maritime Southeast Asia.” Special Issue of Religions 13 (2022).
  • Living with Myths in Singapore. Singapore: Ethos Books, 2017. (Co-edited)

Journal Articles & Book Chapters:

  • “Curating Buddhism, Fostering Diplomacy: The ‘Secrets of the Fallen Pagoda’ Exhibition in Singapore.” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 22, no. 1 (2024): 43–58. (with Darryl Kangfu Lim)
  • “The Making of a Local Deity: The Patriarch of Sanping’s Cult in Post-Mao China, 1979–2015.” Critical Asian Studies 54, no. 1 (2022): 86–104.
  • “The Road Less Travelled: From Landways to Seaways in the Study of Theravāda Buddhism.” Journal of Global Buddhism 22, no. 1 (2021): 211–218.
  • “Singing to Buddha: The Case of a Buddhist Rock Band in Contemporary Indonesia.” Archipel 100 (2020): 175–197.
  • “Diaspora’s Dharma: Buddhist Connections across the South China Sea, 1900–1949.” Contemporary Buddhism 21, nos. 1-2 (2020): 33–50.
  • “Neither Mahayana Nor Theravada: Ashin Jinarakkhita and the Indonesian Buddhayana Movement.” History of Religions 58, no. 1 (August 2018): 24–63.
  • “Who is Tua Pek Kong? The Cult of Grand Uncle in Malaysia and Singapore.” Archiv Orientální 85, no. 3 (December 2017): 439–460.
  • “Defending the Dharma: Buddhist Activism in a Global City-State.” In Singapore: Negotiating State and Society, 1965–2015, edited by Jason Lim and Terence Lee, 143–158. New York: Routledge, 2016.
  • “Toward a Modern Buddhist Hagiography: Telling the Life of Hsing Yun in Popular Media.” Asian Ethnology 74, no. 1 (2015): 141–165.
  • “A Recent Quest for Religious Roots: The Revival of the Guangze Zunwang Cult and its Sino-Southeast Asian Networks, 1978–2009.” Journal of Chinese Religions 41, no. 2 (November 2013): 91–123.
  • “Managing the Tortoise Island: Tua Pek Kong Temple, Pilgrimage, and Social Change in Pulau Kusu, 1965–2007.” New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 11, no. 2 (December 2009): 72–95.
  • “Buddhism in Singapore: A State of the Field Review.” Asian Culture 33 (June 2009): 81–93.
  • “Teaching Dharma, Grooming Sangha: The Buddhist College of Singapore.” SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 24, no. 1 (April 2009): 122–138.
  • “Buddhism in Singapore-China Relations: Venerable Hong Choon and his Visits, 1982–1990.” The China Quarterly 196 (December 2008): 864–883.