Jack Meng-Tat Chia is Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies at the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on Buddhism in maritime Southeast Asia, Buddhist modernism, Chinese popular religion, and Southeast Asia-China interactions. His first book, Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity across the South China Sea (Oxford UP, 2020), explores the connected history of Buddhist communities in China and Southeast Asia in the twentieth century. He is co-editor of Living with Myths in Singapore (Ethos, 2017) and has published articles in journals such as Asian Ethnology, China Quarterly, Contemporary Buddhism, History of Religions, and Journal of Chinese Religions. He is currently working on two book projects: Beyond the Borobudur: Buddhism in Postcolonial Indonesia and Dharma Crossings: Long Gen and the Making of Nanyang Buddhism.

Ja Ian Chong is Associate Professor at the NUS Department of Political Science and Chair of the new Belt and Road Initiative Research Cluster at the FASS Research Division. The focus of his teaching and research is on international relations, especially IR theory, security, Chinese foreign policy, and international relations in the Asia-Pacific. Of particular interest to him are issues that stand at the nexus of international and domestic politics, such as influences on nationalism and the consequences of major power competition on the domestic politics of third countries. A/P Chong is author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation — China, Indonesia, Thailand, 1893-1952 (Cambridge, 2012), which received the 2013 Best Book Award from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. He was a Harvard-Yenching Visiting Scholar in 2019-2020.

Kenneth Dean is Professor and Head at the NUS Department of Chinese Studies. His research interests include Daoist studies, Chinese popular religion, popular culture and Chinese literature. He is the author of numerous books on Daoism and Chinese popular religion, including Ritual Alliances of the Putian Plains: Vol. 1: Historical Introduction to the Return of the Gods, Vol. 2: A survey of village temples and ritual activities (with Zheng Zhenman) (Brill, 2010); Lord of the Three in One: The spread of a cult in Southeast China (Princeton, 1998), Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults of Southeast China (Princeton, 1993); as well as First and Last Emperors: The Absolute State and the Body of the Despot (with Brian Massumi) (Autonomedia, 1992). He also gathered and edited Epigraphical Materials on the History of Religion in Fujian: Xinghua Region (1 vol., 1995); Quanzhou Region (3 vols, 2004) with Zheng Zhenman. He recently authored Chinese Epigraphy in Singapore, 1819-1911, Volumes 1 & 2 (2017, with Hue Guan Thye).