Competing Transnational Buddhisms: Yu Guanbin's Contribution To Taixu's Buddha-Ization Movement In 1920-30s Shanghai

Hwansoo Ilmee Kim, Assistant Professor, Korean Buddhism and Culture, Duke University

This talk concerns the work of the prominent Korean lay Buddhist and entrepreneur Yu Gwanbin (1891-1933) in Shanghai during the mid-1920s and early-30s. Yu collaborated with the Chinese Buddhist reformer Taixu (1890–1947) to promote a transnational Buddhist discourse called “the Buddha-ization movement” (fohua yundong). Yu also acted as a bridge between Korean and Chinese Buddhism by undertaking the project of rebuilding an eleventh-century Korean temple, Koryŏsa, in Hangzhou. In this talk, I examine how Yu’s engagement in these projects is a distinctive case of modern East Asian Buddhism in which national/transnational and religious/political visions intersected and conflicted with each other.