Forms of Conviviality: A Historical Comparison of Modern Multifaith Spaces and Pu-Jing Culture (铺境文化) in Quanzhou, China

Abstract

In a multi-cultural world, problems of living together are often focused on how different faiths accommodate each other. One the basis that we can take lessons from how inter-religious relations were handled in the past, I compare modern Multifaith Spaces (MFS) and the religiously diverse Pu-Jing culture (铺境文化) in Quanzhou, China. I will try to avoid anachronistic application of modern terms to historic situations, and vice versa by treating both as context-specific responses to the same problem of managing religious diversity. I found that they were similar insofar as there was a perceived need for ‘conviviality’, produced through negotiations. In both cases this accommodation was encouraged by top-down legislation and regulation leading to faith activities to be de-privatised. They differed in that there was some syncretic religious art in Pu-Jing culture as well as a lively urban space shared by several faiths. Nothing like this is found in MFS, in which sharing is a matter of time-sharing which allows religions to avoid each other, at a cost of a bland shared small-scale space. I found both cases resulted in a similar spatial solution: standardised spaces are furnished, perhaps temporarily, with elements reflecting the personal beliefs of the users.