Ph.D. in Chinese Studies at Harvard in 1975, longtime member of the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient (1977-2000) and Chair Professor of Daoism and Chinese Religions at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (2000-2011), John Lagerwey is currently Research Professor of Chinese Studies in the Centre of East Asian Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is chief editor of some 40 volumes of ethnographic research and of eight volumes (Brill) on periods of paradigm shift in Chinese religious history. He has also published extensively on the history of Daoist ritual. His most recent authored book is China, a religious state (HKU Press, 2010).