The Female Gender and Religious Practices in Chinese Societies

AKM 147 contains eleven articles that resulted from presentations at the international conference “Discussing the Female Gender and Female Personality as an Intermediary in Chinese Religion” that Professor Chang Hsun ??convened in July 2025 at Academia Sinica in Taipei. The eleven contributions cover a vast range of themes that focus on female protagonists of rituals and religious activities revealing unique expressions of a specific religious culture. Starting out with considerations of the human nature, female and male alike and its religious meaning, the contributions deal with outstanding goddesses in the South-Eastern hemisphere (Mazu and the Three Ladies of Mount Lü), and extend the spectrum of discussion to Quanzhen Daoism and folk religion (Taiwan), and also to Buddhism (Mount Wutai, Ladakh). Much attention is duly paid to the eternal phenomenon of shamanism as exemplified in frontier regions such as Guizhou. AKM 147 presents astonishing and varied insights into the reality and the aspirations of female activists within the religious community all over the sphere of Chinese culture.