This presentation examines encounters between devotion to the Virgin Mary and the bodhisattva Guanyin in China, Japan, and the Philippines. It argues that shared images, narratives, and rituals enabled forms of cross-reading through which believers translated unfamiliar figures into emotionally and functionally meaningful ones. While visual and devotional analogies emerged within distinct social and political contexts, doctrinal boundaries largely remained intact. The Marian–Guanyin nexus thus illuminates how devotion in comparison fostered recognition without theological convergence.

Sponsored by The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College & The Harvard-Yenching Institute 

This event is free and open to the public. Registration required.