Douglas M. Gildow, originally from the United States (Ohio), completed his PhD from Princeton University in religious studies in 2016. Before coming to CUHK in 2018, he held the Sheng Yen postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Religion, Florida State University. 

Gildow’s research interests center of modern and contemporary Chinese Buddhism and extend to the late imperial period and to Chinese popular religion. He has published on relic worship, Buddhist mummification, Chan historiography, ritual performance, and the intellectual history of Chinese elite assessments of Buddhism. He has also given presentations on monastic education and vinaya studies, as well as translated two books on Buddhism from Chinese into English. His current book project, titled Monastic Buddhist Education, examines a historically new institution, the Buddhist seminary, and analyzes its impact on Buddhism and academia. 

Gildow’s has taught courses on Buddhism, Chinese religions, and Asian religions and cultures more generally. 

Recent representative publications include the following.

(1) On late 19^th/early 20^th century Chinese intellectual history and religion:

• Gildow, Douglas M. 2018. “Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940), Religion, and His Plan to Save China through Buddhism.” Asia Major, Third Series 31 (2): 107-148. Abstract and pdf:
  https://aims.cuhk.edu.hk/converis/portal/detail/Publication/97710099?auxfun=&lang=en_GB

(2) On Buddhism in contemporary China:

• Gildow, Douglas M. 2020. “Questioning the Revival: Buddhist Monasticism in China Since Mao.” Review of Religion and Chinese Society 7 (1): 6-33. DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1163/22143955-00701002

Recent Grants and Awards

2020: CUHK Faculty of Arts Outstanding Teaching Award (for 2019)

2020: Liang Qichao and Early Chinese Buddhist Modernism (for 2020-21). CUHK Direct Grant (internal grant).

2020:  Coming to the Terms of Modern Chinese Buddhism, 1870-1950 (for 2021-23). General Research Fund (GRF) (external grant; project no. 14621220).