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  • Home
  • About RSIS
      • Introduction
      • Building the Foundations
      • Welcome Message
      • Board of Governors
      • Staff Profiles
        • Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
        • Dean’s Office
        • Management
        • Distinguished Fellows
        • Faculty and Research
        • Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
        • Visiting Fellows
        • Adjunct Fellows
        • Administrative Staff
      • Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
      • RSIS Endowment Fund
      • Endowed Professorships
      • Career Opportunities
      • Getting to RSIS
  • Research
      • Research Centres
        • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
        • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
        • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
        • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
        • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
      • Research Programmes
        • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
        • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
      • Future Issues and Technology Cluster
      • [email protected] Newsletter
      • Other Research
        • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
  • Graduate Education
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      • Overview
      • MSc (Asian Studies)
      • MSc (International Political Economy)
      • MSc (International Relations)
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    • Interreligious Relations (IRR) Issue 23 – The Construction of Nonreligious Identities among Chinese Millennials in Singapore: A Qualitative Study by Oliver Zikai Lim
    • Annual Reviews
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    Interreligious Relations (IRR) Issue 23 – The Construction of Nonreligious Identities among Chinese Millennials in Singapore: A Qualitative Study by Oliver Zikai Lim
    Oliver Zikai Lim

    04 May 2021

    download pdf

    Abstract:

    This paper investigates the lived experiences of Singaporean Chinese millennials who adopt a nonreligious identity following the recent increase in the percentage of people who identify as having no religious affiliation in the country. Using a qualitative research framework, the author discursively explores the life worlds of three individuals to reveal a contextual fluidity inherent within the overarching “nonreligious” label. The study demonstrates that the construction of a nonreligious identity is influenced by the perpetual tension between Singapore’s unique secular multireligious legislation and educational policy, the dominant Western discourse on religion, and far-reaching Chinese cosmological perspectives as they intersect socially in the lives of these individuals growing up in a diverse country. Using religious studies scholar Paul Hedges’ model of Chinese religion as “strategic participation in a shared landscape,” the author illustrates that despite adopting a nonreligious identity, the individuals embody the same religious hybridity as their parents and families as they adopt a “modern dimension of Chinese religion” by strategically participating in Singapore’s unique contemporary social, political and religious landscape as they see fit to maintain harmony at home and in their social lives. Thus, Singaporean Chinese millennials who identify as nonreligious could – from a Sino-centric perspective – still be considered “religious.”

    Categories: Interreligious Relations / / Southeast Asia and ASEAN

    Last updated on 16/11/2021

    Abstract:

    This paper investigates the lived experiences of Singaporean Chinese millennials who adopt a nonreligious identity following the recent increase in the percentage of people who identify as having no religious affiliation in the country. Using a qualitative research framework, the author discursively explores the life worlds of three individuals to reveal a contextual fluidity inherent within the overarching “nonreligious” label. The study demonstrates that the construction of a nonreligious identity is influenced by the perpetual tension between Singapore’s unique secular multireligious legislation and educational policy, the dominant Western discourse on religion, and far-reaching Chinese cosmological perspectives as they intersect socially in the lives of these individuals growing up in a diverse country. Using religious studies scholar Paul Hedges’ model of Chinese religion as “strategic participation in a shared landscape,” the author illustrates that despite adopting a nonreligious identity, the individuals embody the same religious hybridity as their parents and families as they adopt a “modern dimension of Chinese religion” by strategically participating in Singapore’s unique contemporary social, political and religious landscape as they see fit to maintain harmony at home and in their social lives. Thus, Singaporean Chinese millennials who identify as nonreligious could – from a Sino-centric perspective – still be considered “religious.”

    Categories: Interreligious Relations

    Last updated on 16/11/2021

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    Latest Book
    Interreligious Relations (IRR) Issue 23 – The Construction of Nonreligious Identities among Chinese Millennials in Singapore: A Qualitative Study by Oliver Zikai Lim
    Abstract:

    This paper investigates the lived experiences of Singaporean Chinese millennials who adopt a nonreligious iden ...

    more info