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Koen Wellens

Professor

Email koenraad.wellens@ikos.uio.no

Mobile phone +47 90 51 23 13

Room 335

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Visiting address P. A. Munchs hus Niels Henrik Abels vei 36 0371 OSLO

Postal address P.B. 1010 Blindern 0315 OSLO

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Academic Interests

Chinese society and culture, with a special focus on ethnic minorities, folk religion and Buddhist practice, relationship between state and religion, development in rural areas, rule of law and human rights. Popular religion, environmental issues and indigenous society in Taiwan. Both anthropological and textual/historical approaches.

Teaching

KIN1500: Chinese Society and Politics: Introduction (in Norwegian)
KIN1503: Chinese History (in Norwegian)
KIN2500: Chinese Society and Politics: Advanced (in Norwegian)
KIN4510: How to study Chinese Culture and Society
KIN4340: Taiwan Studies

Higher education and employment history

Ph.D. from the Faculty of the Humanities at the University of Oslo; M.A. in China Studies and Anthropology from State University of Ghent in Belgium and Aarhus University in Denmark. He has been director of the China Programme at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo in 2005 and has been affiliated with the several China-related programmes there as a researcher until July 2013. From September 2011 until June 2012 he has been a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and from August to December 2015 he was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.

China, Taiwan, religion, society, religion and politics, ethnic minorities

Tags: China, Religion and politics, Ethnic minorities, Taiwan

Hansen, Mette Halskov & Wellens, Koen (2026). Enlisting the Divine Farmer, Shennong: Spirituality, Science and Environmentalism in Taiwan. In Hansen, Mette Halskov & Nielsen, Kenneth Bo (Ed.), Religion and Ecological Crisis: Responses from Asia. Leiden University Press. ISSN 9789087285081. p. 29–50. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Taiwan may well be the country in East Asia with the highest concentration of both religious groups and environmental organizations. Some religious organizations are expanding and redirecting their traditional focus on human centred salvation towards a universal transcendent goal of protecting and saving the planet. We take the worship of Shennong, the Divine Farmer, as an example. We show how one Divine Farmer temple has creatively sought to realign the spiritual powers of the Divine Farmer to address new challenges in people’s relationship to nature. We discuss how religious institutions seek to mobilise people for the environmental cause responding actively to society’s call for action and thereby simultaneously strengthening, or even re-establishing, their own social and emotional relevance.
Wellens, Koen (2017). Resilient cosmologies: water deities and divine agency in post-Mao China. Anthropological Forum: a journal of social anthropology and comparative sociology. ISSN 0066-4677. 27(4), p. 365–381. doi: 10.1080/00664677.2017.1284042. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This article explores ritual practices among the Premi people in Southwest China at the beginning of the new millennium. Living in the periphery of Tibetan, Han Chinese and other Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups, Premi villagers have continued to keep an understanding of how the world works that is markedly different from their neighbours. The all-encompassing economic development of China is posing new challenges to the intangible entities in Premi cosmology. In its management of forests, waterways or birth control, the Chinese state is increasingly interfering with Premi ways of dealing with their surroundings. The chapter proposes to focus on the way one category of intangible entities of Premi cosmology, the lwéjabu or water deities, are seen as acting towards these challenges, rather than on the underlying ontological changes. An event where a member of a neighbouring ethnic group becomes an unwitting participant in a Premi medium séance makes the case for approaching extra-human forms of agency by beginning with the ‘work’ or ‘effect’ of the divine entities.
Wellens, Koen (2017). Failed Secularisation, New Nationalism and Governmentality: The Rise of Buddhism in Post-Mao China. In Havnevik, Hanna; Hüsken, Ute; Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus; Tikhonov, Vladimir & Wellens, Koen (Ed.), Buddhist Modernities: Re-inventing Tradition in the Globalizing Modern World. Routledge. ISSN 9781138687844. p. 151–164. doi: 10.4324/9781315542140-9. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
When Deng Xiaoping started his Reform and Opening Up (gaige kaifang) policies in 1978, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also ushered in a period of tolerance for religious practice, guided by a strong modernist belief that religion would disappear by itself as a result of economic development. At the level of political ideology, the Chinese party-state continues to preach strict secularism and atheism. Nevertheless, at another level of discourse, there are indications that point in another direction, at least for Chinese Mahayana Buddhism. A speech by President Xi Jinping in March 2014 seemed to confirm the trend of the preceding decade towards an increasingly positive official appraisal of the role of Buddhism in Chinese society. The significance of this latest development is underscored by the multitude of Chinese articles appearing in Buddhist publications that optimistically herald a new era for Buddhism in China. This chapter argues – and in this way gives some credence to the optimism of Buddhist leaders and intellectuals – that the Communist Party, in line with its transition from a Marxist to a nationalist party, is now gradually relaxing its programme of secularism. In doing so, it is especially looking towards Buddhism, coopting it in the party’s gargantuan task of governing China, and at the same time allowing it to re-enter sectors of Chinese society that until very recently were strictly off limits to religion.
Wellens, Koen (2013). The religious history of Muli. In Schaeffer, Kurtis R.; Kapstein, Matthew T. & Tuttle, Gray (Ed.), Sources to Tibetan Tradition. Columbia University Press. ISSN 9780231135993. p. 605–607. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2012). Migrating Brothers and Party-State Discourses on Ethnic - Origin in Southwest China. In Huber, Toni & Blackburn, Stuart (Ed.), Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004226913. p. 299–319. doi: 10.1163/9789004228368_016. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2009). Negotiable Rights? China's Ethnic Minorities and the Right to Freedom of Religion. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. ISSN 1385-4879. 16(3), p. 433–454. doi: 10.1163/138819009X12474964197755. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Religion, community and anthropological truth in Southwest China. Xinan minzu daxue xuebao. ISSN 1004-3926. p. 1–4. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2006). Zaifang Zhongguo xinanbu de naxizu. Xibei minzu yanjiu. ISSN 1001-5558. 3. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (1998). What's in a name? The Premi in Southwest China and the consequences of defining ethnic identity. Nations and Nationalism. ISSN 1354-5078. 4(1), p. 17–34. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
The article discusses the relation between the official state classification of ethnic groups in China and existing ethnic categories. After several rounds of fieldwork in the 1950's and 1960's 56 nationalities were recognised in the whole of China, that is 55 national minorities plus the Han Chinese majority . The official labels resulting from this classification project and the categories they are meant to cover seem in several cases to be at odds with the way the objects of classification perceive of their own ethnic identity. Through popular as well as more serious publications a certain archetypal image of the culture of each nationality is spread throughout China. This, combined with both the apparent need for exoticizing non-Han Chinese culture in a rapidly modernising Chinese society and the absolutist state's ingrown urge to homogenise and control all forms of ethnic expression has provided each nationality with its stereotyped representation. Being a member of a nationality one both has to relate to the nationality label as the official sanctioning of ones local identity and as the emblem of an external definition of this identity. The article explores how the Premi people of Southwest China manage to mediate these two identities.
Wellens, Koen (1994). Kubilai's Warriors: the Pumi minority in Southwest China and state monopoly on defining ethnic identity. Copenhagen discussion papers. ISSN 0904-8626. 23, p. 47–55. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This paper analyses how the people officially classified as the Pumi Nationality in China's Yunnan province have been able to reinterpret their myths and local identity in view of this label and create a modern ethnic identity.

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Hansen, Mette Halskov; Thøgersen, Stig & Wellens, Koen (2018). Kina - stat, individ og samfunn (3. utgave). Universitetsforlaget. ISBN 9788215030760. 264 p. Full text in Research Archive
Havnevik, Hanna; Hüsken, Ute; Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus; Tikhonov, Vladimir & Wellens, Koen (2017). Buddhist Modernities: Re-inventing Tradition in the Globalizing Modern World. Routledge. ISBN 9781138687844. 302 p. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
The transformations Buddhism has been undergoing in the modern age have inspired much research over the last decade. The main focus of attention has been the phenomenon known as Buddhist modernism, which is defined as a conscious attempt to adjust Buddhist teachings and practices in conformity with the modern norms of rationality, science, or gender equality. This book advances research on Buddhist modernism by attempting to clarify the highly diverse ways in which Buddhist faith, thought, and practice have developed in the modern age, both in Buddhist heartlands in Asia and in the West. It presents a collection of case studies that, taken together, demonstrate how Buddhist traditions interact with modern phenomena such as colonialism and militarism, the market economy, global interconnectedness, the institutionalization of gender equality, and recent historical events such as de-industrialization and the socio-cultural crisis in post-Soviet Buddhist areas. This volume shows how the (re)invention of traditions constitutes an important pathway in the development of Buddhist modernities and emphasizes the pluralistic diversity of these forms in different settings.
Wellens, Koen (2010). Freedom of religion or belief in China: Experiences from the Sino-Norwegian human rights dialogue. Unipub forlag. ISBN 9788274774971. 115 p. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Religious Revival in the Tibetan Borderlands: The Premi of Southwest China. University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295990699. 288 p. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (1996). Sinological reference works in the Oslo University Library. Universitetet i Oslo. 150 p. Full text in Research Archive

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Nielsen, Kenneth Bo & Wellens, Koen (2026). Spirituality, Science and Environmentalism in Taiwan - New Books Network. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Who is Shennong, the Divine Farmer? And how can he help us understand the intricate relationships between spirituality, science and environmentalism in Taiwan today? These questions are at the heart of new research by the University of Oslo’s Koen Wellens and Mette Halskov Hansen. In this episode, we are joined by Koen Wellens for a conversation on religious responses to environmental change, community temples, and reconnecting to nature via the Divine Farmer in the context of contemporary Taiwan.
Wellens, Koen (2024). Kina raser etter Xinjiang-kommentar. [Internet]. abc nyheter. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2024). Valg i Taiwan: Jeg tror ikke folk flest forstår situasjonen. [TV]. TV2. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen & Hansen, Mette Halskov (2023). Spiritually Inspired Environmental Movements in Asia: Local Practices, Universal Potential? Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koenraad (2022). Hva bør Norge gjøre med sitt forhold til Kina? Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Hvis Kina vil gjøre seg fortjent til den status og respekt de ønsker i verden, er en imponerende økonomi og et sterkt militærvesen ikke tilstrekkelig. Myndighetene kan oppnå mer ved å være åpne for kritikk og diskusjon om brudd på menneskerettigheter. Isteden følger de impulsen til å ta offerrollen og reagere med fornærmelse eller fornektelse. Men flere land må være villige til å ta risikoen det er å være tydeligere i dialogen med Kina. Er Norge ett av dem?
Wellens, Koen (2022). Kinesisk partitopp-utspill om Russland ties i hjel av offisielle kanaler i Kina. [Journal]. Aftenposten. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen & Hansen, Mette Halskov (2022). Hva bør Norge gjøre med sitt forhold til Kina? Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2022). Historien om Den himmelske freds plass. [Internet]. Universitetsplassen – en podkast fra UiO. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen & Flikke, Geir (2022). Xi og Putin – partnerskap på prøve. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2022). All makt til folkets mann. [Journal]. Dag og tid. Full text in Research Archive
Hansen, Mette Halskov; Wellens, Koen; Münster, Daniel & Baviskar, Amita (2021). Transcendence and Sustainability: Asian Visions with Global Promise. Panel presentation and discussion. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Are spiritually and religiously inspired environmental movements in Asia largely overlooked as an essential contribution to the global goal of environmental sustainability? Presentation of a new international project based in China, India, Taiwan and Vietnam
Wellens, Koen (2021). Fra bakland til brennpunkt: Undertrykkelsen av uigurene har på få år blitt kime til en storpolitisk, internasjonal strid. [Journal]. Klassekampen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2021). Står bak Trump-vennlig nettsted: − De tror Trump ble sendt fra himmelen. [Journal]. VG. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2020). Indigeneity and environmental resource management in Taiwan: what can we learn from Tsou boar hunting? Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2020). Coronaviruset: Falske bilder florerer. [Journal]. Dagbladet. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2019). Protester i Hong Kong. [TV]. TV2 Nyhetskanalen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2019). Urix spesial. [TV]. NRK. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2019). Et lite stykke kinesisk manipulasjon. [Journal]. Dagbladet. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2018). EDUCATING MONKS: Minority Buddhism on China’s Southwest Border / By Thomas A. Borchert. Pacific Affairs. ISSN 0030-851X. 91(3). Full text in Research Archive
Kaland, Ole Johannes; Adiljan, Abdurihim; Wellens, Koen & Folkvord, Gerald (2018). Re-education. Surveillance, repression and forced assimilation of minorities in today’s China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2017). War Ceremonies and Boar Hunting in a Tsou Community in Taiwan: Living Indigeneity in Global East Asia. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
How can small indigenous communities be resilient as culturally distinct entities in a globalised modern nation-state? Today Taiwan constitutes an economically advanced, democratic state with rather well developed institutional protection of the rights of its indigenous people. After several centuries with different regimes of assimilationist policies, today sixteen tribes are recognised by the state as indigenous people. Some 530,000 people or 2.3% of Taiwan’s population claim Austronesian ancestry and have now been granted opportunities to express, revive or even reinvent what they consider to be their indigenous culture. This research project studies how members of one such community belonging to the Tsou tribe are living, expressing and negotiating divergence from the majority Han Chinese culture. Conceptualising indigeneity as a fluid and dynamic form of interaction between Tsou people and the state, the majority Taiwanese as well as between each other, the project is mainly focusing on three arenas of indigeneity: the annual public performance of the Mayasvi or War Ceremony, the practice of hunting and conflicts related to hunting rights, and local initiatives at language revival through singing.
Wellens, Koen (2017). The New State Religion of the Middle Kingdom? Chinese Mahayana Buddhism under Xi Jinping. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
During the more tolerant years of its rule, the Chinese Communist Party considered religion to be an outdated social phenomenon that would naturally disappear when people became more prosperous and better educated. In radical periods, political impatience led to temples and churches being destroyed, monasteries emptied and clergy mistreated. To understand the increasingly positive assessment of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism by the Chinese political leadership in recent years we might have to look beyond Communist secularist doctrine and obtain clues from both China’s imperial past and its present nationalist aspirations.
Wellens, Koen (2017). Trump møter Xi i Beijing -- Før gigantmøtet: Året der Kina festet grepet. [Journal]. Dagbladet. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2017). Kinas mektige mann er blitt enda mektigere: - Mye foregår bak lukkede dører. [Journal]. Dagbladet. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2017). Forbyr slør og skjegg: Strammer grepet om muslimsk befolkning. [Journal]. Dagsavisen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2014). Kina frykter smitteeffekt. [Journal]. Dagsavisen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2013). Kina gir religiøse mer rom. [Journal]. Vårt land. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2012). PASSAGE TO MANHOOD: Youth Migration, Heroin, and AIDS in Southwest China. Pacific Affairs. ISSN 0030-851X. 85(1), p. 188–189. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2012). Slik sliter kinesiske arbeidere for å bli ferdig med verdens julegaver. [Internet]. Dagbladet.no. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2012). Challenges of bilingual education for ethnic minorities in China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2012). Challenging the Universality of Water-deities: Local Cosmology and Natural Resources in South West China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2011). Minority Rights Discourse and Religious Revival in Southwest China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2011). Den store byvandringen. [Internet]. Dagsavisen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2011). Kina i dag: menneskerettigheter, rettsikkerhet og politisk utvikling. Full text in Research Archive
Bakke, Cecilie Figenschou & Wellens, Koen (2011). "Menneskerettigheter i Kina: Dialog, samarbeid og veien videre". Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2011). Ofre for kinesisk byggeboom. [Journal]. Dagsavisen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2011). Kina: Hu Jia løslatt. [Journal]. Vårt land. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Bryr seg ikke. [Journal]. Bergens tidende. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Verdibørsen. [Radio]. NRK. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Kinas mange ansikter. [Journal]. Perspektiv. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Elite histories: How Muli became Tibetan. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Nobels fredspris temadag. [Radio]. NRK P2. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Amnesty mener kinesisk politi bruker tortur i avhør. [Internet]. TV2nyhetene.no. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Kina - kinesernes krav og kommunistpartiets legitimitet. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2010). Menneskerettigheter i Kina. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2009). Synkretisme: et nyttig begrep? Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2009). Etnische minderheden en godsdienstvrijheid in China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2009). Ritual and relatedness in Southwest China: The Premi House. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2009). Kina: Menneskerettigheter og andre utfordringer. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). OL kan gjøre millioner stoltere, lykkeligere og friere. [Internet]. Dagbladet.no. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Recent human rights developments in China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Dette frykter Kina mest. [Internet]. ABCnyheter. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Frykter flere terroraksjoner under OL. [Internet]. Dagbladet.no. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Kina langsomt på rett vei. [Journal]. Klassekampen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Varsler nettrevolusjon i Kina. [Journal]. Aftenposten. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Olympisk stress syndrom. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Neither Buddhists nor barbarians: Contesting discourses on the origins of the Xifan in Southwest China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Tror ikke OL gir økt ytringsfrihet. [Journal]. Journalisten. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Fengslende meninger. [Journal]. Nationen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Kina vil ha PR-hjelp. [Journal]. VG. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Ser på buddhister som en trussel. [Journal]. Dagsavisen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). I ilden igjen. [Journal]. Klassekampen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Religionsfrihet og minoritetsrettigheter i Kina. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Dalai Lama ber folket besinne sig. [Journal]. Dagsavisen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Slik er Kina blitt mer åpent. [Journal]. Vårt land. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Dette er spill for galleriet, sier Rafto-prisvinner Rebiya Kadeer til Dagbladet.no. [Internet]. Dagbladet.no. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Autonomy and minority religion in China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Nyreligiøsitet i Kina etter Mao. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Tror flere vil komme til. [Journal]. VG. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Hele Kina i sorg. [Journal]. Klassekampen. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Nyheder: interview om menneskerettigheter i Kina og meningen med boikott. [TV]. TV2. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Økonomisk misnøye bidro til Tibet-opptøyene. [Journal]. Uniforum. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). P2 Musikkredaksjonen: indlæg om kinesisk forbudt mod fremføring af Mozarts Requiem. [Radio]. P2. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2008). Verdibørsen. [Radio]. NRK P2. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2007). Etniske minoriteter og religionspolitikk i Kina. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2007). Det Kina ikke vil snakke om før OL. [Journal]. Dagbladet. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2007). Ikke troverdig beskrivelse. Aftenposten (morgenutg. : trykt utg.). ISSN 0804-3116. p. 5–5. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2007). Religion, community and anthropological truth in Southwest China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2007). Book review: Ethnic distinctions, local meanings: negotiating cultural identities in China. By Mary Rack. Anthropos: Internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- und Sprachenkunde. ISSN 0257-9774. 102(1), p. 286–287. Full text in Research Archive
Bakke, Cecilie Figenschou & Wellens, Koen (2006). Dialog med Kina - nytter det? Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2006). Skjer det endringer i Kinas praktisering av menneskerettighetene? Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2006). Land rights as human rights in China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2006). Land and subsistence in Western China: preliminary results from local studies in Guangxi, Yunnan and Sichuan. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2006). Minoriteters rettigheter i Kina. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2005). Nyheter. [Radio]. NRK. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Interview om Rebiya Kadeers løslatelse
Wellens, Koen (2005). Ikkje uproblematisk å kritisera Kina. [Journal]. Uniforum. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2004). Religion, kinship and politics on Tibet's eastern frontier. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2004). Buddhism and local ritual practice. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2003). Book review: The Kam People of China: turning nineteen. By Norman D. Geary, e.a. Anthropos: Internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- und Sprachenkunde. ISSN 0257-9774. 98(2), p. 555–556. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2003). Revisiting the Na of Southwest China. Asian Ethnicity. ISSN 1463-1369. 4(1). Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Review article of Cai Hua's book "A society without fathers or husbands: the Na of China".
Wellens, Koen (2003). Book review: Ways of being ethnic in Southwest China. By Stevan Harrell. Pacific Affairs. ISSN 0030-851X. 76(1). Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2003). Religionsfrihed og etniske minoriteter i Kina. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2002). Premi. In Ember, Carol R; Ember, Melvin & Skoggard, Ian (Ed.), Encyclopedia of World Cultures Supplement. Macmillan Reference USA, New York. ISSN 9780028656717. p. 277–280. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2002). Un exercice maoïste en représentation des élites: L'établissement de la région tibétaine autonome de Muli. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2001). Zhongguo Xinan diqu de minzu shibie he difang zizhi zhidu: Muli zangzu zizhixian de qingkuang (Ethnic classification and the local autonomy system in Southwest China: the case of Muli Tibetan Autonomous County). Full text in Research Archive Show summary
The aim of this paper is to illustrate how ethnic classification and the related state policy of establishing autonomous nationality regions have contributed to shape the direction in which the Premi reproduce and develop what they perceive as central elements of their own distinct culture. This paper builds on comparative fieldwork in Premi regions with different administrative regimes and where the Premi have been given different nationality status: Muli Tibetan Autonomous County in Sichuan and Ninglang Yi Autonomous County in Yunnan. By contrasting the case of the Premi in Muli with that of the Premi in Ninglang, I will try to demonstrate how in the case of Muli the result of ethnic classification by the state and the related establishment of an autonomous county, although at first glance constituting a flagrant inconsistency with so-called ?scientific criteria? of classification, was very much a continuation of existing local ways of understanding identity. At least, it reflected the understanding of a section of the concerned population at that time: i.e. the local political and religious elite. Today, then, we can observe how those decisions taken fifty years ago provide frames for reproducing and developing cultural diversity within a modernizing Chinese society.
Wellens, Koen (2001). Book review: Naxi and Moso ethnography: kin, rites, pictographes, by Michael Oppitz and Elisabeth Hsu (eds.). Anthropos: Internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- und Sprachenkunde. ISSN 0257-9774. 96(1), p. 290–292. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2000). Zhongguo Xinan diqu zongjiao yu zhongzu (Ethnicity and religion in Southwest China). Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (2000). The Anji in Yiji: The survival of local religious beliefs among ethnic minorities on Tibet's Eastern frontier. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Several different ethnic groups inhabit Northwest Yunnan and Southwest Sichuan which constitute the south-eastern border region of ethnic Tibet. Some of them, like the Premi in Yunnan, are today recognised by the Chinese state as separate national minorities. Others, like the Ersu or the Premi in Sichuan, have officially been classified as Tibetans. While sharing aspects of Tibetan culture related to Buddhism there do exist several clear ethnic markers distinguishing these groups from the Tibetans and from each other. It is possible to discern different ethnic groups each having its own distinct language, concepts of common descent, local identity and, surprisingly enough, a set of religious practices and beliefs which cannot be directly related to Buddhism. In one Premi village one can find a lama educated in a monastery in Tibet as well as a hangui, a religious specialist only found in Premi villages. Today Buddhism is again flourishing in this region and many monasteries are being rebuilt. Once again people send their sons to the monasteries. At the same time, in Sichuan, where the Premi are classified as Tibetans and under strong influence of Buddhism the hangui religion manages to survive and thrive as well, precisely through its co-existence with Buddhism and simultaneously functioning as an ethnic marker for the Premi vis-à-vis the surrounding Tibetans.
Wellens, Koen (1999). Religionsfrihed i Kina: konflikter og problemer med hensyn til folkereligion og etniske minoriteter. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koenraad (1999). A Premi djè, of het belang van etnische status in China. Full text in Research Archive
Wellens, Koen (1998). Etniske minoriteter i Kina: eller historien om en asiatisk imperialisme. Dyade. ISSN 0332-5792. 1, p. 52–63. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
Artiklens fortæller hvordan områdene i Folkerepublikken Kina som i dag er befolket af etniske minoriteter blev indlemmet i Kina. Artiklen fokuserer på konsekvenserne dette har haft for disse folk, især i forhold til Kinas nuværende minoritetspolitik.
Wellens, Koenraad (1996). In search of the hangui: religion and ethnic identity among the Premi in Southwest China. Full text in Research Archive Show summary
This paper presents an analysis of the role of religion in the formation of ethnic identity among the Premi and their neighbours, in the light of Chinese policies on religion and ethnic minorities.
Wellens, Koen (2006). Consecrating the Premi house: ritual, community and the state in the borderlands of East Tibet. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive
Lothe, Egil; Arnesen, Knut Espen & Wellens, Koen (2003). Report from a visit to China by a delegation from the Oslo Coalition: 15. - 30. November 2002. Oslo Coalition. Full text in Research Archive

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Published Aug. 9, 2013 10:55 AM - Last modified Oct. 23, 2025 8:19 PM

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Transcendence and Sustainability: Asian Visions with Global Promise (Transsustain)