Research Theme :
Religion, nation, space in East Asia

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?