{{Short description|American-Canadian historian of Chinese religion}} {{Infobox academic | name = David Ownby | image = <!-- Example: File:David_Ownby.jpg --> | alt = | caption = | nationality = | fields = | discipline = Chinese history; history of religion; intellectual life in contemporary china | sub_discipline = | workplaces = Université de Montréal; Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology | alma_mater = Harvard University | occupation = Historian | known_for = | notable_works = Falun Gong and the Future of China; ''Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid‑Qing China'' | website = {{URL|https://www.readingthechinadream.com}} }} '''David Ownby''' (born 1958<ref>{{Cite web |title=Falun Gong and the future of China / David Ownby {{!}} Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/4368380|access-date=2025-06-17 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}</ref>) is an American‑Canadian historian of Chinese religion and a specialist in modern Chinese popular movements. He is professor emeritus of history at the Université de Montréal and research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Ownby's scholarship has contributed to Western understanding of Qing‑period secret societies, Falun Gong and contemporary Chinese intellectual landscape.
== Early life and education == Ownby is a native of the United States. He earned his B.A. in history from Vanderbilt University and his master's degree in East Asian Studies and a Ph.D. in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University.<ref>{{Cite web |title=UNOFFICIAL RELIGION IN CHINA: BEYOND THE PARTY'S RULES |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-109jhrg21814/html/CHRG-109jhrg21814.htm |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=www.govinfo.gov}}</ref>
== Academic career == Ownby taught at University of Montreal from 1994 until his retirement in July 2023,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ownby |first=David |date=2023-10-20 |title=About |url=https://redeyetobogota.com/about/ |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=The Red-Eye to Bogotá |language=en}}</ref> as a professor of the Center of East Asian Studies and the history department.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=David Ownby |url=https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/people/david-ownby |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World, Georgetown University |language=en}}</ref> He then became a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ni |first=Taili |date=2024-05-16 |title=How China's New Left Embraced the State |url=https://chinabooksreview.com/2024/05/16/how-chinas-new-left-embraced-the-state/ |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=China Books Review |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> In addition to traditional scholarship, Ownby maintains the translation website ‘‘Reading the China Dream’’, launched in 2018 to make the work of contemporary Chinese public intellectuals available in English.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ownby |first=David |title=Mission statement |url=https://www.readingthechinadream.com/mission-statement.html |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=Reading the China Dream |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Nathan |first=Andrew J. |date=2023-12-12 |title=Website Review: "Reading the China Dream" curated by David Ownby {{!}} Foreign Affairs |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/reading-china-dream |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=www.foreignaffairs.com |language=en}}</ref>
His research centers on the history of religion in modern and contemporary China. He conducts fieldwork on popular religious groups in China, Taiwan and North America, analyzing their development in relation to state policy, institutional religion and the post‑Mao religious revival. He also co‑leads an SSHRC Insight‑funded project on contemporary Chinese intellectual life, which examines how increased intellectual freedom, the search for a modern yet distinctly Chinese identity and the government’s pursuit of new ideological legitimacy intersect.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-10-29 |title=Professor Profile - David Ownby |url=https://histoire.umontreal.ca/english/department-directory/professors/professor/in/in19125/sg/David%20Ownby/ |access-date=2025-06-20 |website=Département d’histoire - Université de Montréal |language=en}}</ref>
== Research == === Secret societies and popular religion === Ownby’s early work examined Qing‑period secret societies. His monograph ''Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid‑Qing China'' (1996)<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.sup.org/books/asian-studies/brotherhoods-and-secret-societies-early-and-mid-qing-china |title=Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China {{!}} Stanford University Press |date=1996-09-01 |isbn=978-0-8047-2651-1 |language=en}}</ref> argues that these organizations were founded as popular "brotherhood association" to foster "mutual aid" and "community cohesion" rather than political upheavals,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Murray |first=Dian |date=1997 |title=Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China: The Formation of a Tradition. by David Ownby. |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/journal-of-asian-studies/article/56/2/487/336343 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |language= |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=487–489 |doi=10.2307/2646273|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and that the Qing dynasty's harsh repression inadvertently accelerated the Tiandihui’s expansion and consolidation throughout southern China.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Elliott |first=Mark |date=1998 |title=Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China: The Formation of a Tradition (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/article/397074 |journal=China Review International |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=225–229 |doi=10.1353/cri.1998.0120 |issn=2996-8593|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
=== Falun Gong === {{Main|Falun Gong and the Future of China}}
Beginning in the late 1990s, Ownby turned to Falun Gong. His fieldwork in North America and textual analysis culminated in ''Falun Gong and the Future of China'', the first academic monograph to contextualize the movement historically and sociologically.{{sfn|Ownby|2008|p=Preface}}
Scott Pacey of the Australian National University described the book as "a comprehensive overview of Falun Gong both as a set of religious beliefs and as an organized group of devotees." Pacey stated "Scholars and students interested in Chinese religion will find much to profit from this book."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pacey |first=Scott |date=2009 |title=Review of Falun Gong and the Future of China |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20648131 |journal=The China Journal |issue=62 |pages=157–159 |issn=1324-9347}}</ref> Hong You, a scholar of contemporary Chinese religion, considered Ownby's treatment "an objective appraisal". According to Hong You the average public and academics in Chinese and religious studies would appreciate the book, so would Falun Gong members as it contains "constructive criticism coming from an academic work."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=You |first=Hong |date=2011 |title=David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/662413 |journal=The Journal of Religion |volume=91 |issue=4 |pages=591–592 |doi=10.1086/662413 |issn=0022-4189|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Michael L. Mickler, an American church historian, described it as "a major contribution toward our understanding of" the Falun Gong.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |last=Mickler |first=Michael L. |year=2010 |title=Review: Falun Gong and the Future of China, by David Ownby |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/nr/article-abstract/14/2/117/70367/Review-Falun-Gong-and-the-Future-of-China-by-David |journal=Nova Religio |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=117–118 |doi=10.1525/nr.2010.14.2.117 |jstor=10.1525/nr.2010.14.2.117 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Both Hong You and Mickler pointed that the book deals little with the "Future of China" despite its title. James R. Lewis, a scholar of new religious movement and professor at Wuhan University, argued that Ownby's book was too sympathetic to the Falun Gong, and was unfairly biased against the People's Republic of China.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=James R. |author-link=James R. Lewis (scholar) |title=Falun Gong: Spiritual Warfare and Martyrdom |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-108-44565-8 |editor-mask=2 |series=Cambridge Elements |pages=77–81 |language=en |issn=2514-3786}}</ref>
=== Contemporary Chinese intellectual life === Since 2018, Ownby's work has focused on translating writings by Chinese Liberal, New Left and New Confucian thinkers. The project led to public presentation at the Collège de France in 2022 and their publication as ''L’essor de la Chine et les intellectuels publics chinois (2023)''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-08-29 |title=Published : The rise of China and Chinese public intellectuals {{!}} Collège de France |url=https://www.college-de-france.fr/en/news/published-the-rise-of-china-and-chinese-public-intellectuals |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=www.college-de-france.fr |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2024-01-11 |title=Arrighi Center General Seminar: Professor David Ownby–Reading the China Dream in the Xi Jinping Era |url=https://krieger.jhu.edu/arrighi/event/arrighi-center-general-seminar-professor-david-ownby-reading-the-china-dream-in-the-xi-jinping-era/ |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=The Johns Hopkins University, Arrighi Center for Global Studies |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Selected works ==
* {{cite web |last=Ownby |first=David |year=1996 |title=Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid‑Qing China |url=https://www.sup.org/books/asian-studies/brotherhoods-and-secret-societies-early-and-mid-qing-china |publisher=Stanford University Press |access-date=16 June 2025}} * {{Citation |last=Ownby |first=David |title=Falun Gong and the Future of China |date=2008 |work= |pages= |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/36117 |access-date=2025-06-17 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York |isbn=0-19-532905-8}} * {{Cite book |last=Xu |first=Jilin |url=https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/east-asian-history/rethinking-chinas-rise-liberal-critique?format=HB&isbn=9781108470759 |title=Rethinking China's rise: a liberal critique |last2=Ownby |first2=David |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108470759 |edition=1st |series=The Cambridge China library |location=Cambridge}} * {{Cite book |last=Ownby |first=David |url=https://www.college-de-france.fr/fr/editions/conferences/essor-de-la-chine-et-les-intellectuels-publics-chinois-9782722606203 |title=L'essor de la Chine et les intellectuels publics chinois |date=2023 |publisher=Collège de France éditions |isbn=978-2-7226-0620-3 |series=Conférences |location=Paris}}
== References == <references />
==External links== * [https://www.readingthechinadream.com/ Reading the China Dream] – translations and commentary by David Ownby * [https://thediplomat.com/2021/11/david-ownby-on-chinas-resolution-on-history-ideology-and-intellectuals/ Interview with the Diplomat:] David Ownby on China's ‘Resolution on History,’ Ideology, and Intellectuals * [https://kalavinkaadvisors.com/publication/kalavinka-viewpoints-29/ Interview with Kalavinka Advisors:] Intellectuals, Secret Societies and China Observations: An interview with David Ownby * [https://thechinaproject.com/podcast/david-ownby-of-readingthechinadream-com-on-the-intellectual-mood-in-china/ Interview with The China Project:] David Ownby of ReadingtheChinaDream.com on the intellectual mood in China
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ownby, David}} Category:American religion academics Category:Canadian historians Category:Historians of China Category:Academic staff of the Université de Montréal Category:Vanderbilt University alumni Category:Harvard University alumni Category:1958 births Category:Living people