Dissertation Project

My project investigates contemporary Buddhist craftsmanship in the persisting, yet hitherto unexamined, trade of marble Buddhist images across the Myanmar-China border since the late 1980s, which pursues, negotiates, and promotes a version of magnificence that derives from the religious values of marble, or white jade in vernacular Chinese, and provokes lasting enchantment among Chinese Buddhists. More specifically, it elucidates how the aspiration to produce magnificent marble icons among Burmese and Chinese craftspeople interacts with the market economy to influence image production, transnational image marketing, and their everyday collaborations with the ethnic Buddhist Others against the precarities of transborder economies.

Distinguished Academic Experience

  • “Buddhas Beyond Borders: Trading Marble Buddhist Images from Myanmar to China” | SSRC InterAsia Academy 2021

  • “Buddhas Beyond Borders: Trading Marble Buddhist Images from Myanmar to China” | AAS-SSRC Dissertation Workshop  2020

Publications

  • Deng, Beiyin. “Reimagining a Buddhist Cosmopolis: Conveying Marble Buddhas from Burma to China, 1890s-1930s.” Journal of Global Buddhism, Vol. 24, Issue 1, 2023, 25-46. https://www.globalbuddhism.org/article/view/3382

  • Deng, Beiyin. Review of Political Theologies and Development in Asia: Transcendence, Sacrifice, and Aspiration, edited by Giuseppe Bolotta, Philip Fountain, and R. Michael Feener. Asian Ethnology, Vol. 80, Issue 1, July 2021, 243-245. https://asianethnology.org/articles/2335

  • Deng, Beiyin. Review of The Buddha’s Wizards: Magic, Protection, and Healing in Burmese Buddhism, by Thomas Nathan Patton. Journal of Dharma Studies, Vol.3, Issue 3, 2020, 429-431. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42240-020-00081-z

Academic Conference Presentations

  • “The Way to Magnificence: Dāna (Generosity), Mettā (Loving-kindness), and Trans-ethnic Patron-Client Relationship in the Trade of Marble Buddhist Images across the Myanmar-China Border” | “Global China in a Religious World” Conference, The University of Hong Kong and ARI-NUS, 2023
  • “Seeking Magnificence: Material Enchantment and the Trade of Marble Buddhist Images across the Myanmar-China Border” | Theravada Civilizations Project Conference, University of Pennsylvania, 2023
  • “From Efficaciousness to Magnificence: Buddhist Craftsmanship in the Trade of Marble Buddhist Images across the Myanmar-China Border” | Theravada Studies Group Meeting, Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference,  2023
  • “Engendering Magnificence: Polishing and Burmese Female Artisans in the Trade of Marble Buddhist Images across the Myanmar-China Border” | Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference,  2023
  • “A Stone Buddha Misunderstood: Interweaving Multiple Epistemologies in the Study of the Buddhist Material Transactions from Myanmar to China” | European Association for Southeast Asian Studies Annual Conference, 2022
  • “Reimagining a Buddhist Cosmopolis: Conveying Marble Buddhist Images from Burma to China, 1890s-1930s” | Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, 2022
  • “From ‘Burmese Marble’ to ‘Burmese White Jade’: Aesthetic Appreciation and the Transnational Marketing of Burmese Marble Buddhist Images to China | Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, 2021
  • “From ‘Burmese Marble’ to ‘Burmese White Jade’: The Cultural Repertoires Behind the Transnational Trade of Marble Buddhist Images from Myanmar to China | SEAP Graduate Student Conference, Cornell University, 2020