People

Mark Meulenbeld received his training at the Sinological Institute of Leiden University, The Netherlands, where he was steeped in philological and anthropological approaches to traditional China, with special training in Daoism. Upon graduating, he spent several years studying in Taiwan, as a tour-guide in China, traveling in Tibet, and as a travel agent for a company in the Netherlands. From 2000 to 2007, he studied at Princeton University, where he obtained a PhD in East Asian Studies. From 2007 to 2017 he taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and from 2017 to 2022 was at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Department of Chinese Culture. Ever since, he has been happily employed at HKU.

After publishing his first book, Demonic Warfare: Daoism, Territorial Networks, and the History of a Ming Novel (University of Hawai’i Press, 2015), a major new monograph is now in press (Harvard University Asia Center, 2026), and is titled The Presence of Peach Spring: Daoism, Ritual, and Locality.

In addition to long-standing interests in Daoism and its interaction with the traditions of local cults in various regions of the sinosphere, Mark Meulenbeld has begun to engage in new field-research projects that incorporate the Chinese legacy traditions in Southeast Asia, especially the rituals of ethnic Yao minorities in Northern Thailand, and the festivals in Chinese temples organized by Thai communities of Southwest Thailand. Another major issue driving his current work is ecology.

Dr. Meulenbeld teaches CHIN 1207, “Traditional Chinese Culture,” CHIN 2231, “Religious Daoism and popular religions in China,” as well as CHIN 7019, “Understanding Chinese Culture: Fieldwork and Site Visit.”