People

Research Faculty

ZHONG Yijiang

ZHONG Yijiang

Associate Professor
-2021,
Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia
yijiangzhong[at]
Research theme: Religion, nation, space in East Asia

Religion, Nationalism, Sea in East Asia

Research Topics



Professor Zhong’s research has three components. First is intellectual and cultural history of Japan. His first book “The Origin of Modern Shinto in Japan: the Vanquished Gods of Izumo” (Bloomsbury Publishing 2016) deals with the history of Shinto in Tokugawa and Meiji Japan (1600-1889). His current book project explores the history of space and spatialization in modern East Asia. This is an investigation of the geographical epithet “ura-Nihon” (“the underside of Japan”) in the context of the Japanese empire and modern East Asian history. Related to his study of Shinto, he is also interested in religion and secularity. He asks this question: what does it mean to separate religion from the modern nation-state?

Research activities

Books
  • Zhong, Yijiang. The Origin of Modern Shinto in Japan: the Vanquished Gods of Izumo: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.10.
Translated Books and Articles
  • Junichi, Isomae. Translated by Yijiang Zhong. Reimagining Early Modern Japan: Beyond the Invented/Imagined Modern Nation. Edited by Peter Nosco, James Ketelaar, and Kojima Yasunori: Brill, 2015.
Articles and Book Chapters
  • Zhong, Yijiang. “Freedom, Religion and the Making of the Modern State in Japan, 1868-89.”Asian Studies Review 38, no. 1 2013: 53-70.
  • Zhong, Yijiang. “Formation of History as a Modern Discipline in Meiji Japan.”Working Paper Series, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, no. 191 2012: 1-20.
  • Zhong, Yijiang. “Month without the Gods: Shinto and Authority Construction in Early Modern Japan.”The Religion and Culture Web Forum, Divinity School, University of Chicago 2012.
  • Zhong, Yijiang. “Ritual, Purity and Power: Rethinking Shinto in Restoration Japan.” Politics and Religion in Modern Japan: Red Sun, White Lotus. Edited by Roy Starrs. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011: 28-53.
Book Reviews
  • Zhong, Yijiang coauthor Junichi Isomae”Dialogic Transcendence and the Process of Subjectification, and then Sustainability.”Religious Studies Review 44, no. 2 (2018.6): 183-190.
  • Zhong, Yijiang. Review of The “Greatest Problem”: Religion and State Formation in Meiji Japan, by Trent Maxey. International Journal of Asian Studies 12 (2015).
  • Zhong, Yijiang. Review of In a Sea of Bitterness: Refugees during the Sino-Japanese War, by Keith R. Shoppa. Asian Journal of Social Science 41, no. 4 (2013).

Experience

YearEducation
YearAcademic experience