ABSTRACT
In Singapore, spirit mediums are assisted by a zhuotou who receives, translates, and performs instructions from the medium possessed by a deity. In the context of Charismatic Christianity in Singapore, the practice is somewhat paralleled, but the pastor is the source and producer of incomprehensible words. This performative act signals both the pastor addressing God as well as his supposed intimacy with God. This chapter examines and compares the two contexts in terms of performativity, exploring this “sharing of cultural vocabularies” by focusing on the specific bodily gesture of “speaking in tongues” and comparing the practice of spirit dialogue found in localized Chinese popular religions with the megachurches’ practice of speaking in tongues or glossolalia.
