In this essay I argue that despite the scope of change in the realms of military, security, economic, and social policies, as well as changes in the legal sphere, the path dependency left by the institutions of the previous imperial and republican regimes has influenced the current arrangements for the regulation of religion by the state in China. This state of affairs has less to do with something specific to Chinese culture and more to do with the particular institutional context of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In the first section of this paper, I consider the influence of previous regimes’ institutions that is still felt in the current regulatory mechanisms for the control of religion. Then, in the second section, I explore the current approach to religious affairs, drawing attention to its quadripartite dimensions: political, legal, administrative, and managerial. In a third section I examine the nature of the challenges faced by the Communist Party of China, the legal and state apparatus of the PRC, and the religious institutions. The discussion uses evidence from fieldwork that I have undertaken over the space of ten years on the philanthropic activities of Buddhist institutions in China. I conclude by discussing the political obstacles that stand in the way of implementing a secular state in China that is genuinely pluralist and supportive of religious diversity.

No abstract

With the extraordinary growth of China's economy over the past decades, a new generation of successful business entrepreneurs and billionaires has appeared, most of whom are incarnations of dreams of "rags to riches." At the same time, the gap between the rich and poor has widened, and, far (and sometimes not so far) from the booming cities of the coasts, China's impoverished rural hinterlands often suffer from declining public investment in health and education. Many of the new barons of business have established charitable foundations to help alleviate poverty-a growing trend that is promoted by the Chinese state. In a bid to publicize generosity and encourage charity, many magazines and government bodies regularly publish honor rolls and lists of China's "top philanthropists." Most of them are wealthy real estate developers and pop stars-but one name that often appears is that of an illiterate, eighty-year-old former beggar, Lin Dong, a charismatic Buddhist healer who has donated tens of millions of dollars to build schools in poor villages all over China. Born in 1930, Lin Dong became an orphan as a child and began a life of errant mendicancy. He married another beggar and, after the People's Republic was established in 1949, was assigned a job as a manual laborer, helping to ship loads of goods along the waterways of Guangdong province. In the 1970s he lost his right hand in an accident, and a few years later he suffered from a stroke. In a state of near death, he had a vision of the Chinese god Jigong, who assured him that he would recover and entrusted him with the mission of rescuing those who suffer in the world. Jigong (1130-1207) was a monk who had been kicked out of his monastery for eccentric behavior and his love of meat and alcohol; he then roamed the streets and acquired a reputation as a crazy trickster with a benevolent heart, who had magical powers and could always be counted on to help ordinary people. Over the centuries he was worshipped as a popular god and as a character in

This manuscript has been reproducad frwn the miaofilm master. UMI films the text diredly fmm the original or copy submW. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, hile &ers may be from any type of cornputer pn'nter-The quality of this reproduction s depandent upon the quality of the copy subrniaed. Broken or indistinct p r i a colorad or p r quari illustrations and photogaphs. prînt bleedthmugh. substandard margins, and impmper alignment can adversely affect reproducüm.In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manusuipt and the-are missing pages, these wiil be nded, Also, if unauthoeed copyright material had to be removed, a note mil indicate the deletion.Ovenize materials (e.g.. rnaps, dfaw~~ngs. &arts) are raproduceâ by sectiming the original, beginning at the upper lefbhand corner and continuhg h m ie€t to nght in equal sections with smali overiaps.Photographs indudeci in the original manuscript have been reproduced xemgraphically in this copy. Higher quali 6" x W' bkck and white photographie prints are avaiiabb for any photographs or illustrations appearing in mis copy for an addiional charge. Contact UMI ditectly to order. Relief Tm Chi Association (or Ciji). It concentrates on trying to understand the rationale behind the dinerent strategies that each of them has adopted in its interaction with the governent The BAROC has adopted a stnitegy of lobbying in an attempt to remedy the steady decline of its statu throughout the 1990s: it has üied to sway the governent to adopt a law that wodd restore the authority over Buddhists the association held before 1989. Foguangshan has resorted to a strategy of remonstrance to advance its religious ideals between 1995 and 1 997: its founder Xingyun supported the bid of his Iay disciple Chen Lü'an for the presidency of the Repubtic of China (ROC) and Iauuched large public demoastrations critical of the govenunent that followed that election. During the same period of the. Ciji has steered away from the conûoversies over the law on religion and conspicuousiy avoided supporting Chen. while continuhg to grow to becorne the Iargest organization of its kind in Taiwan. The theological views ofthe three organizations' leaders are examined as key factors explaiuing the rationale behind the politicai stmtegies these organkations have adopted. Other factors such as availabiIity of materiai resources. lay support, congruence between leaders and their foilowers on the dimension of ethnici~ and gender are expiored as possible sources of constraints on the Leaders. The politics of Buddhists in T h a n h m retrocession to 1987 Bel f & TABLE OF CONTENTSThe retrocessioa of Taiwan to Chinese d e , the concern of the KMT over Taiwanese separatist tendencies, the resumption of the civil war on the Chinese mainland. The data on the community outreach advitî= and the actiwties of environmentai protection undertaken by the Fouridation were part of the Ciji Web page they pubiished until November 1997, M e r that date, however, the otganizathn eat...

This article looks at Taiwan's policy towards religion to show that non-Western societies can also achieve what Alfred Stepan called a “twin toleration” wherein the state does not intervene in religious affairs, and religion does not seek to control the state. The paper shows the sets of constraints in which policy-makers struggling for an adequate way to deal with religion operate. They have to choose among a variety of models in democratic societies, to take into account the legacy of the authoritarian era, and to consider the specificities of Taiwan's situation, influenced by a Chinese cultural heritage, Japanese colonialism and observations from other parts of the world. The paper then describes how these constraints have influenced the major stages in the evolution of relations between state and religions in Taiwanese society and then argue that the state had yet to reach a consensus up until 2008 on the legislation of religion because of disagreements between different religious actors.