Commercialization of Religion 宗教的商业化

1、 The Commercialization of Religions in China TodayPrepared by Cao Yaqin, Nicole (14S505M)ContentsRecycling Tradition: Culture, History, and Political Economy in the Chrysanthemum Festival of South ChinaOf Temples and Tourists: The Effects of the Tourist Political Economy on a Minority Buddhist Commu

2、nity in Southwest ChinaTemples as EArthur Wolf (1974) examines the relationship between state and society through popular religion and ritual G. William Skinner argues that Chinese history is structuredb y cycles of regional growth and decline (1985). His analysis of the mar-keting hierarchy gives a

3、 conceptual coherence to social life in time and space, but politics, culture, and social institutions are given analytical weight only after the economic skeleton is in place. Maurice Freedman (1958, 1966):The wonderous range of lineage communities, made explicit by collective properties and elabor

4、ate public rituals, give their members a shared consciousness about cultural identity Chrysanthemum Festival of South China - 3 Chrysanthemum Festival of South China - the ceremony1736Jushi (菊试菊试) was not in the form of a community-wide festival. The participants followed specific requirements for f

5、loral entries based on type, color, and title, as if they were essays presented for the imperial examinations. Then, professional opera troupes from Guangzhou performed for several days in front of the ancestral halls, paralleling temple festivals in which operas were performed for the gods. 1782chr

6、ysanthemum festival called Juhua Hui(菊菊花花会会). Unlike popular religious festivals, with their regular and predictable schedules and forms, the chrysanthemum vents were staged in an ad hoc manner. Nine years lapsed between the first and the second festival. The third festival, which took place twenty-

7、four years later, was prompted by a political event the previous year. Chrysanthemum Festival of South China - the ceremonyIt is worth noting that the focal ancestral halls where operas were performed were the centers of the festival. Moreover, the opera troupes were specialized in a style connected

8、 with the kun qu. Popular among the higher literati in the metropolitan centers, the style was an extra status symbol for the organiz-ers.29 That the festival was held in the year of Jiashu was not insignificant. A similar year of Jiashu eight centuries ago was identified by the lineages as the time

9、 when their founding ancestors initiated the move from northern Guangdong to the delta. It was suggested that the festival be put on a regular basis, to take place every sixty years, in order to link the initial migration with the cycle of cosmic time. In so doing, the historical and cultural consci

10、ousness of the mortals projected the significance of their arrival to the realm of divine forcesThe fragmented historical materials do not allow us to conjecture about the expansionist motives of the elites in Xiaolan at the time, and it is also difficult to link the festivals directly with the subs

11、equent economic gains by the lineages. However, one at least notes that the festivities provided the setting in which a long history of settlement, lineage power, and literati pretentions were explicitly interlocked. The created nexus was important. Having collectively appropriated the status symbol

12、s of a state culture and thus its political connections, the aspiring elites in Xiaolan aggressively claimed the sands from the county magistrates in the name of their lineages and developed them into productive fields. They controlled the grain trade, and legitimized by their active participation i

13、n the cultural discourse of the imperial Chrysanthemum Festival of South China - the ceremonyHeld by another generationThis time, the festivities of the halls were coordinated with those of the major temples patronized by merchants, guilds, and neighborhoods. They unified the participants under a la

14、rge communal umbrella. The documents recording this festival repeatedly stressed the territorial identity of the town as made up of the major lineages and community temples. Because of rebellion chrysanthemum festival was forbidden until 1867.Because the chrysanthemum festival might very well have t

15、urned into a subversive platform against the imperial order if lineages feuding over land rights had risen to the occasion. From the official point of view, it was probably a political situation too volatile to allow taking chances. 60 Years LChrysanthemum Festival of South China - the ceremony1934T

16、here was a clear shift not only in the content of the festival, but also in the centers of activities and in the social bases of the leading organizers. Under the directorship of a committee, the town was divided into several neighborhood districts in which festivities were organized. The defining u

17、nits were no longer the focal ancestral halls. Instead, community temples, which served as public security offices of neighborhoods and were heavily patronized by local military bosses, overshadowed the ancestral halls. Exorcism Ceremonies & paraded images of deities carried the religious overto

18、ne of temple festivals absent in the previous chrysanthemum festivals. Reflected the disintegration of a core leadership in town, which used to be bolstered by lineage power based on landed wealth and literati prestige Wars, Political CChrysanthemum Festival of South China - the ceremony1959It was o

19、bviously accelerated to fit an important political event of the new government. The festival in 1973 took place in a time of political uncertainty. In the wake of the Cultural Revolution, the Communist Party remained extremely factionalized. People had hardly recovered from the nationwide political

20、witch hunt when a group of Taiwanese merchants decided to organize an exhibition of chrysanthemums in Hong Kong. In response, the town government hurriedly staged its own in an attempt to claim back its community symbol. 1979It was organized by the town government with a different order of magnitude

21、. The decision of the national party to reverse the Maoist politics of the previous decades was confirmed only the year before. The cadres in Xiaolan felt that staging the chrysanthemum festival was useful and appropriate as an event to show the overseas Chinese, potential investors in the new era o

22、f economic reforms, that the government was liberalizing in earnest. Addressing the festival largely to the regional and the lineage associations overseas, the organizers shrewdly played the politics of native roots. PRCChrysanthemum Festival of South China - the ceremony Festival & CeremonyPoli

23、tical EnvironmentRegimeIdentityEconomic IBuddhism Developed Through TourismThe Problem of Tourist Development in ChinaThe Exotic Tais of Southwest ChinaOf Temples and Tourists: The Effects of the Tourist Political Economy on a Minority Buddhist Community in Southwest CMany of Chinese Minorities is a

24、utonomous community Domestic ethnic tourism is a major site where the interests of the stateit provides opportunities for wealth transfer fromChinas centersit provides them with consumptionopportunities, as well as the chance to feel more modernOf Temples and Tourists: The Problem of Tourist Develop

25、ment in COf Temples and Tourists: The Exotic Tais of Southwest ChinaSipsongpanna Far way from the centeral PLA set up garrison Unique temple Abbot = The Director of Regional Buddhism AssociationDhamma SchoolWat PajieTheravada BuddhismIndependence Rebuilt temple Train up monks Increase novices Buddhi

26、st education Dai Of Temples and Tourists: Buddhism Developed Through Tourism Political Cover in Sangha-State Relations Corruption and Distortion Reinforcing Dai-lue IdentityHoliday lost his religious aspect.False monks: Is an alignment of the interests of the Sangha and the local state around the pr

27、acticeof Buddhism.Reinforce their “dai-ness,” and indeed even to radicalize it. This doesnot happen solely because of tourism, but tourism plays an importantrole in this process.Entrance feeGift shops - Significant distortion Of Temples and Tourists: Conclusion Tourism has had clear effects within the Sangha of Sipsongpanna. This chapter has suggested that the development of the tourist political economy in Sipson