Stephan Feuchtwang is part-time Professor in the Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics. He has published books on Chinese popular religion, feng-shui and on grassroots charisma in southern Fujian and northern Taiwan. His research interests are on the relations between politics and religion and on the anthropology of history and comparative civilisations. For this book he extended his research from China and Taiwan to Germany, where he was born and from which his parents fled as refugees to England.