Religious Revival among the Zhuang People in China: Practising “Superstition” and Standardizing a Zhuang Religion

This paper examines two cases of Zhuang religious revival involving multiple actors. It shows how consideration of “superstition” (迷信, mixin) places some religious practice outside the institutional framework when discussing the modern concept of religion in China. In this paper, I particularly focus on two main dimensions of religious revival among the Zhuang people. The first is a grassroots dimension that involves the revival of a so-called “superstitious” cult in which Zhuang people along the Sino-Vietnamese border carry out shamanic rituals to make offerings to a powerful chief-turned-deity, Nong Zhigao, and his wife. The second dimension is a top-down dynamic and involves a series of projects conducted by Zhuang officials, scholars and business persons, which aim to standardize a Zhuang religion, known as Mo religion. These two cases of religious revival demonstrate the varied strategies utilized by different actors in response to government policies regarding religion in China

Religious Revival among the Zhuang People in China: Practising "Superstition" and Standardizing a Zhuang Religion

"This paper examines two cases of Zhuang religious revival involving multiple actors. It shows how consideration of 'superstition' (mixin) places some religious practice outside the institutional framework when discussing the modern concept of religion in China. In this paper, I particularly focus on two main dimensions of religious revival among the Zhuang people. The first is a grassroots dimension that involves the revival of a so-called "superstitious" cult in which Zhuang people along the Sino-Vietnamese border carry out shamanic rituals to make offerings to a powerful chief-turned-deity, Nong Zhigao, and his wife. The second dimension is a top-down dynamic and involves a series of projects conducted by Zhuang officials, scholars and business persons, which aim to standardize a Zhuang religion, known as Mo religion. These two cases of religious revival demonstrate the varied strategies utilized by different actors in response to government policies regarding religion in China." (author's abstract

Religious Revival among the Zhuang People in China: Practising “Superstition” and Standardizing a Zhuang Religion

This paper examines two cases of Zhuang religious revival involving multiple actors. It shows how consideration of “superstition” (迷信, mixin) places some religious practice outside the institutional framework when discussing the modern concept of religion in China. In this paper, I particularly focus on two main dimensions of religious revival among the Zhuang people. The first is a grassroots dimension that involves the revival of a so-called “superstitious” cult in which Zhuang people along the Sino-Vietnamese border carry out shamanic rituals to make offerings to a powerful chief-turned-deity, Nong Zhigao, and his wife. The second dimension is a top-down dynamic and involves a series of projects conducted by Zhuang officials, scholars and business persons, which aim to standardize a Zhuang religion, known as Mo religion. These two cases of religious revival demonstrate the varied strategies utilized by different actors in response to government policies regarding religion in China

One crisis, diverse impacts—Tissue-specificity of folate deficiency-induced circulation defects in zebrafish larvae

<div><p>Folate (vitamin B9) is an essential nutrient required for cell survival, proliferation, differentiation and therefore embryogenesis. Folate deficiency has been associated with many diseases, including congenital heart diseases and megaloblastic anemia, yet the mechanisms underlying these remains elusive. Here, we examine the impact of folate deficiency on the development of the circulation system using a zebrafish transgenic line which displays inducible folate deficiency. Impaired hematopoiesis includes decreased hemoglobin levels, decreased erythrocyte number, increased erythrocyte size and aberrant <i>c-myb</i> expression pattern were observed in folate deficient embryos. Cardiac defects, including smaller chamber size, aberrant cardiac function and <i>cmlc2</i> expression pattern, were also apparent in folate deficient embryos. Characterization of intracellular folate content in folate deficiency revealed a differential fluctuation among the different folate derivatives that carry a single carbon group at different oxidation levels. Rescue attempts by folic acid and nucleotides resulted in differential responses among affected tissues, suggesting that different pathomechanisms are involved in folate deficiency-induced anomalies in a tissue-specific manner. The results of the current study provide an explanation for the inconsistent outcome observed clinically in patients suffering from folate deficiency and/or receiving folate supplementation. This study also supports the use of this model for further research on the defective cardiogenesis and hematopoiesis caused by folate deficiency.</p></div

Zebrafish larval hematopoiesis and response to rescuing agents.

<p>(A, B) Hemoglobin of larvae in control and FD groups, with/without folate supplementation, were stained with o-dianisidine at 3 dpf. Hemoglobin signals were distributed most abundantly in the heart (dashed rectangles) and common cardinal veins (arrowheads) of control larvae (normal). Ectopic accumulation of hemoglobin in caudal veins (arrows) was often observed in FD larvae (mild and severe). The severity of anomalies was categorized and quantified based on the level and distribution of hemoglobin signals in larval heart and common cardinal veins. The images shown were the lateral (the upper panel) and ventral (the lower panel) views of larvae. Average of at least six independent experiments with the total sample number of 51–139 for each group are reported. (C, D) The relative number and size of embryonic erythrocytes were analyzed with flow cytometry for both control and FD embryos of 2-dpf generated by crossing Tg (hsp:EGFP-γGH) and Tg (gata1:dsRed). The numbers of erythrocytes were presented as the percentage of red fluorescent cells to total cell number. The size of erythrocytes was normalized with those of control larvae. Presented are data collected from at least three independent experiments with a total embryo number of approximately 30–40 for each group. (E) Hematopoiesis in both control and FD embryos was characterized by whole mount <i>in situ</i> hybridization with a riboprobe specific to <i>c-myb</i>, a hematopoietic stem cells marker. Reduced signals (arrowheads) with spatially and temporally altered distribution (arrows) were observed in embryos with severe folate deficiency. The larval responses to rescuing agents were quantified based on the distribution patterns of the <i>c-myb</i> signal at 32 hpf larvae (F) as shown in (E), and on the hemoglobin level (G) as shown in (A). There were approximately 10 to 40 larvae included for each group. (H) The 1-dpf wild-type larvae exposed to folic acid or 5-CHO-THF for 1 hour were examined for oxidative stress with H2DCFDA staining. C or CTL, heat-shocked non-fluorescent transgenic control; M or MFD, mild folate deficiency; S or SFD, severe folate deficiency; 5-CHO, 5-formyltetrahydrofolate; NAC, N-acetyl-L-cysteine; FA, folic acid. *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01; ***, p<0.001.</p

Prospective causal links involved in FD-induced developmental defects of the zebrafish circulation system.

<p>FD increases embryonic oxidative stress, leading to activated Erk (I) and impeded cell migration (II), which contributed to impeded hematopoiesis and cardiogenesis, respectively. FD also disturbed one-carbon metabolism, which interferes with nucleotide synthesis (III) and cell proliferation/hematopoiesis. The impeded one-carbon metabolism may also disturb intracellular methylation potential, which hampers primordial cell migration (II), leading to cardiogenic defects. This scheme is depicted based on the results reported in the current study (solid lines) and those in the literature (dashed line).</p

Folate and folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism.

<p>(A) Folate is comprised of a pteridine ring, p-aminobenzoic acid and glutamyl moieties with 5 to 8 glutamate residues attached in γ-linkage. The one-carbon units are attached to the N5- and/or N10-position of the pteridine ring at the oxidation levels of formate, formaldehyde and methanol. (B) The one-carbon units carried by reduced folate are involved in cytosolic, mitochondrial and nuclear folate pools and used for the biosynthesis of purines, thymidylate, amino acids and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM). Over-expressed γ-glutamylhydrolase (γGH) facilitates intracellular folate exportation by converting polyglutamylfolates (folate-Glu_n) to monoglutamylfolates (folate-Glu₁), leading to intracellular folate deficiency (thickened circle and arrows in shadowed box). Enzyme abbreviations: DHFR, dihydrofolate reductase; MTHFD, methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase; FDH, 10-formyltetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase; GART, glycinamide ribonucleotide transformylase; AICART, aminoimidazolecarboxamide ribonucleotide transformylase; MTHFS, 5,10-methenyltetrahydrofolate synthetase; SHMT, Serine hydroxymethyltransferase; MTHFR, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase; TS, thymidylate synthase; MTR, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate-homocysteine methyltransferase; MAT, methionine adenosyl transferase; MT, methyltransferase; SAHH, S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase.</p