Zihao He
Thesis title: Analyzing the Role of Theology in the Anti-Manchu Violence of the Taiping Rebellion.
PhD supervisors:
Address
- Street
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New College, Mound Pl
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Background
Zihao was born and raised in North China, and has been studying in the UK for several years. He is interested in all things we call 'religions' and 'religious'. Besides reading and writing, his major interest and a significant part of life is the 90’s Brit-Pop.
CV
146177.pdf
Qualifications
(BA Hons) International Studies with French, University of Nottingham (Ningbo China) 2021.
(Mst) Study of Religions, University of Oxford (Trinity College) 2022.
Undergraduate teaching
Tutor: History of Christianity as a World Religion 1a
Tutor: History of Christianity as a World Religion 1b
Tutor: Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding
Guest Lecture: Religion and Nationalism in the Contemporary World
Research summary
Religion and Violence, Christianity in China, Study of Religions, Religion and Nationalism.
Zihao's project aims to analyze the role of theology in constructing and conducting the violence in the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864), the largest civil war in history. Besides the textual analysis of Taiping's theology, the project will also provide an micro-level history, trying to understand why the theological construction was translated into actual violence. Although the movement itslef has been constructed as a historical myth and loaded with ideological considerations due to its revolutionary and proto-nationalist agenda, the thesis hopes to challenge the myth and stress a different normative for the Taiping study: it was violence first.
Current research interests
Religion and Violence, Chinese Christianity, Religion and Nationalism in China, the Taiping Rebellion, Christian Anarchism.Past research interests
Fundamentalism, salafism, Secularization, jihad in Islam.Affiliated research centres
Conference details
Annual Conference of Society for the Study of Theology, 2023, Warwick, UK.
PGR Colloquium, New College, University of Edinburgh, 2023.
SGSAH PGR Conference, 2024, Aberdeen, UK.
American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, 2024, San Diego, US
Invited speaker
Research Seminar Series in Centre for the Study of World Christianity, Edinburgh, UK
Paper title: Foreign Brothers and Foreign Demons: The Ethnocentric Narrative of the Taiping Rebellion
Participant
Yale-Edinburgh Conference on World Christianity, 2023.
Papers delivered
Theology Proper of the Taiping Rebellion and the Chinese Traditional Framework of Political Power.
Killing the Manchus as Demons: Exploring the Demonology of the Taiping Rebellion.
Eliminating Demons in China: the Taiping Demonology and Violence
Book Review: Zihao He, WAR, PEACE, AND VIOLENCE: FOUR CHRISTIAN VIEWS. Edited by Paul Copan. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2022. Pp. xi+240. Paper, $ 25.99. Religious Studies Review, 50: 177, 2024.