Anna Iskra (University of Hong Kong)

This talk investigates how utopian imaginations shape the projects of "spiritual nationalism" in the growing New Age / holistic spirituality networks in China. It focuses on the Oneness (合一) movement, the most popular Indian guru worship milieu in the People’s Republic today. The talk traces the steps of mainland Chinese spiritual seekers who bring their gurus’ teachings from India to China and disseminate them back home. In these practices, Chinese Oneness followers combine state-castigated heterodoxy, such as the millenarian message about the coming of the “Golden Age” of humanity, and nationalistic discourses calling for the establishment of a global socialist utopia with China as a “spiritual leader of the nations.” Such utopian projects unfold in the context of growing political and military tensions between India and China and the recent warnings against “Indian cults” issued by Chinese state-controlled media outlets.