Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T14:55:15.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Merit And Mothering: Women and Social Welfare in Taiwanese Buddhism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2010

Chien-Yu Julia Huang  and
Robert P. Weller
Get access

Extract

Thirty years ago the buddhist compassion Relief Foundation (Ciji Gongdehui, hereafter Ciji) was virtually unknown. Lost in the backwater of Taiwan's eastern coast, the group began in 1966 with a nun, five disciples, and thirty housewives who contributed pin money of NT $0.50 each day (just over a penny at that time) to help supplement medical fees for the poor. The nuns sewed children's shoes to generate a little more income, and their monthly total of funds available for charity was under NT $1,200 (about US $30 at that time). Today Ciji is the largest civic organization in Taiwan, claiming 4 million members worldwide in 1994, and nearly 20 percent of Taiwan's population. It gives away well over US $20 million in chanty each year, runs a state-of-the-art hospital, and has branches in fourteen countries.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , May 1998 , pp. 379 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Baptandier, Brigitte. 1996. “The Lady Linshui: How a Woman Became a Goddess.’ In Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China, edited by Shahar, Meir and Weiler, Robert P.. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Berg, Barbara. 1978. The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism: The Woman and the City, 1800–1860. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Berger, Peter, Berger, Brigitte, and Kellner, Hansfried. 1973. The Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Brook, Timothy. 1993. Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard-Yenching Institute.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, Heath B. 1993. “On the Search for Civil Society in China.” Modern China 19(2): 199–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wei-An, Chang. 1996. “Fuojiao Ciji Gongde Hui Yu Ziyuan Huishou” (The Buddhist Compassion Merit Society and Recycling). Paper Presented at the Workshop on Culture, Media and Society in Contemporary Taiwan, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Gongdehui, Ciji. n.d. “Wuyuan Daci Tongti Dabei” (Great Beneficence to Known and Unknown, and Boundless Compassion for All). Brochure, n.p.Google Scholar
Daniels, Arlene Kaplan. 1987. Invisible Careers: Women Civil Leaders from the Volunteer World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Winston. 1980. Dojo: Magic and Exorcism in Modern Japan. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Swarte Gifford, Carolyn. 1981. “Women in Social Reform Movements.” In Women and Religion in America, Vol. 1, edited by Ruether, Rosemary Radford and Keller, Rosemary Skinner. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Dudbridge, Glen. 1978. The Legend of Miao-shan. Oxford Oriental Monographs, no. 1. London: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
Faun, Peter. 1991. The Miracle World of Compassion. Taipei: Tzu-Chi Cultural and Volitional Center.Google Scholar
Jordan, David K., and Overmyer, Daniel L.. 1986. The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Chinese Sectarianism in Taiwan. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindenmeyr, Adele. 1993. “Public Life, Private Virtue: Women in Russian Charity, 1762–1914.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 18(3):562–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benxuan, Lin. 1996. “Zongjiao Yundong de Shehui Jichu—Yi Ciji Gongdehui Wei Lie” (The Social Base of a Religious Movement—the Example of the Compassion Merit Society). Paper Presented to the Conference on the Study of Taiwanese Buddhism, National Taiwan University.Google Scholar
Hwei-Syin, Lu. 1991. “Women's Self-Growth Groups and Empowerment of the ‘Uterine Family’ in Taiwan.” Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 71:29–62.Google Scholar
Hwei-Syin, Lu. 1997. “Gender and Buddhism in Taiwan.” Paper presented to the Conference on State and Society in Transition: Taiwan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Kathleen D. 1990. “Parallel Power Structures: Women and the Voluntary Sphere.” In Lady Bountiful Revisited: Women, Philanthropy, and Power, edited by McCarthy, Kathleen D.. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Overmyer, Daniel L. 1976. Folk Buddhist Religion: Dissenting Sects in Late Traditional China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pascoe, Peggy. 1990. Relations of Rescue: The Search for Female Moral Authority in the American West, 1874–1939. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pope, Barbara Corrado. 1977. “Angels in the Devil's Workshop: Leisure and Charitable Women in 19th-century England and France.” In Becoming Visible: Women in European History, edited by Bridenthal, Renate and Koontz, Claudia. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Prochaska, F. K. 1980. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Redding, Gordon. 1996. ‘“Thickening’ Civil Society: The Impact of Multinationals in China.” Development and Democracy 11:21–28.Google Scholar
Rothman, Sheila M. 1978. Woman's Proper Place: A History of Changing Ideals and Practices, 1870 to the Present. New York: Basic.Google Scholar
Ryan, Barbara. 1992. Feminism and the Women's Movement: Dynamics of Change in Social Movement, Ideology and Activism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Sangren, P. Steven. 1996. “Myths, Gods and Family Relations.” In Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China, edited by Shahar, Meir and Weller, Robert P.. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Scott, Anne Firor. 1990. “Women's Voluntary Associations: From Charity to Reform.” In Lady Bountiful Revisited: Women, Philanthropy, and Power, edited by McCarthy, Kathleen D.. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Sered, Susan Starr. 1994. Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister: Religions Dominated by Women. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Bonnie G. 1981. Ladies of the Leisure Class: The Bourgeoises of North France in the 19th Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Joanna F. Handlin. 1987. “Benevolent Societies: The Reshaping of Charity During the Late Ming and Early Ch'ing.” Journal of Asian Studies 46(2):309–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Summers, Anne. 1979. “A Home from Home—Women's Philanthropic Work in the Nineteenth Century.” In Fit Work for Women, edited by Burnman, Sandra. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Taussig, Michael T. 1980. The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Thomsen, Harry. 1963. The New Religions of Japan. Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Turtle.Google Scholar
Watson, James L. 1985. “Standardizing the Gods: The Promotion of T'ien Hou (‘Empress of Heaven’) Along the South China Coast, 960–1960.” In Popular Culture in Late Imperial China, edited by Johnson, David, Nathan, Andrew J., and Rawski, Evelyn S.. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Weller, Robert P. 1987. Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion. Seattle: University of Washington.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolf, Margery. 1972. Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar