East Asian Self-Cultivation Practices in Transnational and Diasporic Perspective

This roundtable panel takes a transnational perspective to consider the potential utility of the East Asian concept of “self-cultivation” (a catch-all English translation of a group of related words, including 修養, 修身, and 修行) for religious studies and as a potential sub-discipline. Scholars of religion in China, Korea, Japan, and East Asian diasporas (in the U.S. and Europe) will present examples of how the category of self-cultivation appears in their varied research areas and works as a means to think about a range of practices that the academy often describes as “religious” or “spiritual” against the claims of practitioners themselves, who often distinguish their practices from religion. We will also reflect on the adequacy of the English phrase “self-cultivation” as an analytical or pedagogical framework, as it may reify a concept of “self” that obscures emic goals of overcoming an illusory selfhood or being overly self-centered.