Katz, Paul R. 1961- (Paul Russell Katz)

PERSONAL:

Born December 9, 1961. Education: Yale University, B.A. (cum laude), 1980; Princeton University, M.A. (cum laude), 1988, Ph.D., 1990.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Norwich, CT. Office—Academia Sinica, Institute of Modern History, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan. E-mail—mhprkatz@gate.sinica.edu.tw.

CAREER:

Historian, educator, writer, and editor. University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow, 1990-91; National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan, associate professor, 1991-93; National Tsinghua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, part-time associate professor, 1993—; Academia Sinica, Institute of History and Philology, Taipei, Taiwan, visiting fellow, 1993-95, associate research fellow, 2002—; National Central University, Nankang, Taiwan, associate professor, 1995-2002, director of Language Center Preparatory Office, 2001-02, part-time associate professor, 2002—; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998.

MEMBER:

American Historical Society, Association of Asian Studies, Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, Taiwan Association of Religious Studies.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Recipient of fellowships and research grants, including Chinese Popular Culture Project postdoctoral fellowship, 1990-91, and Academia Sinica, Institute of History and Philology fellowship, 1993-95.

WRITINGS:

Demon Hordes and Burning Boats: The Cult of Marshal Wen in Late Imperial Chekiang, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1995.

Taiwan De Wangye Xin Yang (title means "The Cult of the Royal Lords in Taiwan"), Shang ding wen hua chu ban she (Taibei Shi), 1998.

Images of the Immortal: The Cult of Lu Dongbin at the Palace of Eternal Joy, University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu, HI), 1999.

(Editor, contributor, and author of introduction, with Murray A. Rubinstein) Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2003.

When Valleys Turned Blood Red: The Ta-pa-ni Incident in Colonial Taiwan, University of Hawai'i Press (Honolulu, HI), 2005.

Contributor to books, including the Encyclopedia of Taoism; Proceedings of the International Conference on Popular Beliefs and Chinese Culture, Center for Chinese Studies, 1994; Society and Culture in Taiwan and Fukien, Chuang Ying-chang and P'an Ying-hai, Institute of Ethnology, 1994; Ritual, Temple, and Community—Taoism, Popular Religion, and Popular Culture, edited by Chu Ron-guey and Li Feng-mao, Institute of Literature and Philosophy, 1996; Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China, University of Hawai'i Press, 1996; Papers from the Seventh Conference on Chinese Maritime History, edited by T'ang Hsi-yung, Sun Yat-sen Institute of Social Sciences, 1999; Ethnography in China Today: A Critical Assessment of Methods and Results, edited by Daniel L. Overmyer, Yuan-liou Publishing, 2002; Searching for the Paradigm: New Perspectives on Taiwanese Religious Studies, edited by Chang Hsun and Jiang Tsann-terng, SMC Publishing, 2003; Voices of the Voiceless (II): Women and Society in Modern China, 1600-1950, edited by Yu Chien-ming, Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 2003; Religion in Modern Taiwan: Tradition and Innovation in a Changing Society, edited by Philip Clart and Charles B. Jones, University of Hawai'i Press, 2003; The Minor Arts of Daily Life: Popular Culture in Taiwan, edited by David K. Jordan, Andrew D. Morris, and Marc L. Moskowitz, University of Hawai'i Press, 2004; and Religion and Chinese Society, edited by John Lagerwey, Chinese University Press, 2004. Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of Ritual Studies, Asian Folklore Studies, Chinese Studies, Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Journal of Chinese Religions, Journal of Ritual Studies, Annales de Demographie Historique, Taoist Resources, Journal of Humanities East/West, Journal of Chinese Studies, and China Quarterly. Has served as editor of Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore, and guest editor of Journal of Chinese Religions; has served on the editorial boards of the Bulletin of Institute of Modern History, Humanities East-West, Journal of Chinese Religions, and Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore.

SIDELIGHTS:

Paul R. Katz is a historian of Chinese popular religion and specializes in the interaction between religion and local research. Much of his research focuses on problems of social organization and ritual and is based on a wide range of sources, including archival materials, local gazetteers, stele inscriptions, private writings, canonical and liturgical texts, novels, dramas, poems, and folktales. His 1995 book Demon Hordes and Burning Boats: The Cult of Marshal Wen in Late Imperial Chekiang was his doctoral dissertation; the book focuses on the cult and festival of Marshal Wen, a popular plague-fighting deity who was worshipped in the province of Zhejiang during the later imperial era. The book includes maps, illustrations and tables. Writing in the book's introduction, Katz notes: "The primary goal of this work is to bridge the long-standing gap between Taoist studies and social history." Katz later wrote in the introduction: "In an even broader sense, this work hopes to combine the disciplines of social history and religious studies to achieve a more profound understanding of the cultural significance of Chinese cults and festivals."

Images of the Immortal: The Cult of Lu Dongbin at the Palace of Eternal Joy examines the cult of the popular Taoist immortal with a focus on the cult's growth at the Palace of Eternal Joy in the Shanxi province. "I pay special attention to the ways in which the Palace's leading patrons (Taoists and members of the elite) attempted to promote their own representations of Lü, as well as the degree to which such representations gained acceptance at the local level," the author writes on the Academia Sinica Web site. In the process, the author takes into account the various "histories" of the Palaces as they are presented in various texts. The author also explores how the site both reflected and produced cultural diversity.

Katz is also the editor, with Murray A. Rubinstein, of Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities. In this book, contributors examine the creation of forms of individual and group identity in Taiwan and the relationships between these forms of identity. The contributors also discuss patterns of Taiwanese religion, politics, and culture with an emphasis on exploring the Taiwanese sense of self both in terms of individual and group identity. The essays range from the local to the national level and also are placed within the context of the larger Chinese cultural and religious experiences.

In a review of Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities, May-Lee Chai noted in Asian Affairs: An American Review that, "in their introduction, Katz and Rubinstein reveal the tremendous political complications that arose in 2000 when a Ma-tsu temple group wanted to make a direct pilgrimage to a county on the mainland where their sect also had followers." In addition to writing about the problems that arose with the Ma-tsu pilgrimage, the editors also discuss in their introduction the theoretical issues addressed by the essays, as well as their overall topics. Katz and Rubinstein further stated: "The subject of this book, identity/role, and its relationship to Taiwan society, political environment, culture, and religious universe, is a complex one that has been the focus of a growing body of literature. It is our hope that by devoting this book to certain sets of linkages we can shed additional light on the core issue of identity and larger issues of the nature of Taiwan's complex—and everchanging—societal and cultural/spiritual matrix."

The anti-Japanese religious rebellion that occurred in southern Taiwan in 1915 is the topic of the 2005 book, When Valleys Turned Blood Red: The Ta-pa-ni Incident in Colonial Taiwan. Overall, 1,000 people died in the uprising, which was essentially against Japanese colonialism. According to the author, the incident is a dramatic example of both the successes and failures of Japan's colonial rule at the time. The author examines such issues as the motivations of village rebels and the elites, who cooperated in planning and organizing the uprising, and the immediate and long-term impacts of the uprising on local society.

Noting that the book "represents part of the collective efforts of historians to bring Taiwan back to the study of comparative colonialism," Lung-Chih Chang went on to write in a review in Pacific Affairs: "Katz's dense narrative and solid analysis not only sheds new light on the Japanese empire and its historical legacies in East Asia but helps demystify the stereotype that Taiwanese were submissive colonial subjects compared to their Korean counterparts."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Katz, Paul R., Demon Hordes and Burning Boats: The Cult of Marshal Wen in Late Imperial Chekiang, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1995.

Katz, Paul R., and Murray A. Rubinstein, editors, Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2003.

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, June, 1997, William T. Rowe, review of Demon Hordes and Burning Boats, p. 868; October, 2006, Steven Phillips, review of When Valleys Turned Blood Red: The Ta-pa-ni Incident in Colonial Taiwan, p. 1151.

Asian Affairs: An American Review, winter, 2005, May-Lee Chai, review of Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities, p. 252.

Asian Folklore Studies, April, 1997, Philip Clart, review of Demon Hordes and Burning Boats, p. 179.

Choice, April, 2006, G. Zheng, review of When Valleys Turned Blood Red, p. 1461.

Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, June, 2001, Meir Shahar, review of Images of the Immortal: The Cult of Lu Dongbin at the Palace of Eternal Joy, p. 259.

History of Religions, February, 1998, Robert Ford Campany, review of Demon Hordes and Burning Boats, p. 278.

Journal of Asian Studies, August, 1997, R. David Arkush, review of Demon Hordes and Burning Boats, p. 771; November, 1997, Joseph Bosco, "Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China," p. 1078; February, 2005, Don A. Pittman, review of Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities, p. 168.

Pacific Affairs, spring, 2006, Lung-Chih Chang, review of When Valleys Turned Blood Red, p. 115.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2005, review of When Valleys Turned Blood Red.

ONLINE

Academia Sinica,http://www.mh.sinica.edu.tw/eng/ (March 28, 2008), author's curriculum vitae.

Blogger.com,http://www.blogger.com/ (March 26, 2008), profile of author.