Joseba Estevez is a social anthropologist and Research Assistant Professor at the “Asian Religious Connections (ASIAR)” cluster of the HKIHSS, HKU. Building on more than a decade of immersive fieldwork among the Lanten Yao (Mun) communities in northern Laos’s Luang Namtha Province, Estevez’s research explores how Daoist cosmology and ritual shapes the social life of local communities. His recent research also investigates the local impacts of major infrastructure projects such as the Laos–China Railway, the development of Smart Cities, Special Economic Zones, and the broader dynamics of international cooperation agencies in mainland Southeast Asia, especially Laos and Thailand.

David A Palmer (PhD, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris) is a Professor of anthropology jointly appointed by the HKIHSS and the Department of Sociology of HKU. He is the President of the East Asian Society for the Social Scientific Study of Religion and convenor of the HKIHSS “Asian Religious Connections” research cluster. He currently coordinates collaborative research projects on Daoism among the Yao ethnic minority in the China-Vietnam-Laos borderland, and on religious and socio-cultural entanglements between China and countries of the Belt and Road Initiative.