Sarah May Mawhinney

I have a love for and fascination with all kinds of different religious systems, but my true passion is sinology - I adore China’s history, literature, culture, and language, and have found a way to blend these interests by focusing my graduate studies on European Jesuits in China during the Ming (1368 - 1644) and Qing (1644 - 1912) Dynasties. I’ve been interested in this topic since my second year of undergrad here at uOttawa, and I want to combine my passion for sinology with the skills I’ve acquired through my religious studies degree to closely analyse the dynamics of how European Catholicism met Chinese culture and religion. To further my efforts, I’ve been taking the Mandarin courses offered at uOttawa. While Jesuits in the Ming and Qing Dynasties will be my primary pursuit during my graduate studies, I also love studying other aspects of Chinese religious history, such as folk religion, Protestantism in the Qing Dynasty, Kaifeng’s Jews, Daoism, Daoist and Buddhist cults, the Taiping Rebellion, and a handful of specific deities/deified figures - Guanyin, Sun Wukong, Nezha, Tang Sanzang, Guan Yu, and Nüwa. My interests also include (but are not limited to) Newfoundland’s history and culture (I’m half-Newfie), the study of fandom/fanworks, the Three Kingdoms Period and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, all kinds of Chinese and/or China-related media, and anything involving women or queer people in any area of history. My most significant interest is a manhua called The Ravages of Time, which I’ve been reading since 2022 and that inspired my love for sinology. Between fanworks, proofreading, and other contributions, my dedication to this series and its Anglophone fandom takes up most of my free time!