ABSTRACT
The religious dimension of Chinese cinema is a ‘triple lacuna’ in contemporary scholarship which is conspicuously underrepresented in, or even totally missing from, three academic fields that could be related to such endeavour – the study of religion in China, the study of Chinese cinema, and the interdisciplinary study of film and religion. Scholars who study religion in China have engaged various cultural forms, particularly Chinese literature, in their works, but significant endeavour involving Chinese film is yet to emerge from this sector. Understandably, few (if any) scholars in this field are expert in cinema study, and their knowledge of film seldom goes beyond personal interest as cinema-goers. In the field of cinema study, although the study of Chinese cinema has been flourishing for two decades or so, its religious aspect has virtually been untouched. Recent scholarly books on Chinese cinema cover a broad range of subjects, such as its relationship to socio-cultural-political changes (Zhu 2003; Zhang 2007), its relation to ecological issues (Lu and Mi 2009), as well as its economic and industrial dimensions (Zhu and Rosen 2010). Works that explore the religious are yet to be seen, however. This indicates a conspicuous lack of interest in religious matters among film scholars, rather than the lack of religion-related content in Chinese films.
