Conversation Between Author Chenxing Han and Professor Jane Iwamura on "Be the Refuge"

Date
Thursday March 4th 2021, 7:00 - 8:30PM
Event Sponsor
The Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford
Location
Virtual via webinar
cover of Be the Refuge


Please join us for a conversation between author Chenxing Han and Professor Jane Iwamura on Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhism. Professor Paul Harrison, Co-Director of The Ho Center for Buddhist Studies and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University, will serve as moderator and pose questions from the audience to Chenxing Han and Professor Jane Iwamura during the Q & A session.

Webinar Link will be sent after registration.

Summary of the book:
Be the Refuge is the first book to center the experiences of Asian American Buddhists as a pan-ethnic, pan-sectarian group. It is a celebration of underrepresented voices—and a challenge to bifurcating models of American Buddhism. Drawn from in-depth interviews with 89 young adult Asian American Buddhists, Be the Refuge counters the erasure of this complex and diverse group by resisting essentialized tropes (Oriental monk, superstitious immigrant, banana Buddhist) and highlighting the stories of multigenerational, second-generation, convert, and socially engaged Asian American Buddhists. Weaving together interviewee perspectives with scholarship and spiritual inquiry, this book reenvisions Buddhist Asian America as a community of trailblazers, bridge-builders, integrators, and refuge-makers. 

If you are interested in purchasing "Be the Refuge," here are two options:
1. From the publisher, use the coupon code hbcss35 for 35% off (expires 4/4/2021)
2. From other booksellers

Bios:

Chenxing Han


 

 

 

 

 

Chenxing Han is a Bay Area–based writer whose publications have appeared in Buddhadharma, Journal of Global Buddhism, Lion’s Roar, Pacific World, Religions, Tricycle, and elsewhere. She holds a BA from Stanford University and an MA in Buddhist studies from the Graduate Theological Union. After studying chaplaincy at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley, California she worked in spiritual care at a nearby community hospital in Oakland. She is the author of Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists (North Atlantic Books, January 2021). https://www.chenxinghan.com/

Jane Iwamura


 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Naomi Iwamura is Chief Academic Officer and Professor of Religious Studies at University of the West. Her research focuses on Asian American religions, race and popular culture in the United States (with an emphasis on visual culture). Her publications include Virtual Orientalism: Religion and Popular Culture in the U.S. (Oxford 2011) and the co-edited volume, Revealing the Sacred in Asian and Pacific America (Routledge 2003). She has also written on Japanese American lived religions, as well as the intersection of religion and Asian American literary production, and is the co-founder and current steering committee member of the Asian Pacific American Religions Initiative (APARRI).