There is a vague boundary between religions in Taiwan. The English term “to convert” doesn’t seem to exist in the society, since very often the Taiwanese say he/she believes in the Buddha, the Jade Emperor (and last month the journalists found someone who has been worshipping the statue of a politician for 20 years) at the same time. Last week for my fieldwork I visited a temple in Taipei, and got to see two young pop singers companied by their representatives asking the priest about their new album. I think the two singers are probably lay people and not disciples in strict sense; nonetheless it’s not surprising to see people go to the temple to ask about the future because temples have been one of the information sources in Taiwanese life.
To exclude any gods/ghosts is offensive to the supernatural world, and in addition to making someone feel guilty, the possible punishment brings anxiety. It is understandable why Christianity has difficulties being popular in Taiwan. People could have hard time to understand “why can’t I bow and send greetings to my ancestors while being a Christian?” Some Christians indeed upset the society, because they go to their hometown trying to destroy the ancestral tablets and claim that their families are heterodox by worshiping the idols.
Two weeks ago I went to Tainan- the historical city which might have the biggest number of temples in Taiwan- and on my way down to the south I saw a lot of temples and graveyards along the highway, or located in the center of the rice field. While taking photos, I can’t stop wondering how I should answer the question to my fieldwork: what is the meaning of the ritual for people in Taiwan?
Along the highway one can see the decorative roofs of the temples
The most beautiful temple I’ve ever visited in Taiwan: the Dragon Mountain Temple (Longshan Si) in Taipei
1 comment:
Grace:
I was just talking to one of my language exchange partners about my feelings on ghost month activities, and how I've had a pretty negative reaction to what I've come into contact with. I suppose there are two main reasons:
1. Every Taiwanese person I meet wants to explain the origin of the ghost month and the reason behind the correlated activities and prohibitions. When I was here 2 years ago and and my host mother told me about it, I thought it was curious and I was quite open to learning about it. But now that I am thoroughly acquainted with the story, I wish people would STOP launching into it without even asking whether I am familiar with the story or am even remotely interested in hearing about it. Moreover, they seem to feel the need to both implicate themselves in as well as distance themselves from ghost month activities; e.g. "we Taiwanese will follow these customs, even though we know they're not true." Hence my following observation:
2. I made the mistake of of walking down Nanjing Donglu on Aug. 15. This road, as you know, is full of big/rich companies, and of course they all need to do the ritual feeding/paying respects to the ghost. As I walked through the blazing fires and smoke, I felt more and more distaste towards all of the tables set up for the tribute. All of them were adorned with the ugliest, cheapest, wrapped-in-plastic commericalized foods, piled high with little plastic flags. I thought to myself "if I were the ghost I would be right annoyed at this cheap display." When I discussed this with my Taiwanese friends, they told me the set up was merely intended to be efficacious, and "a ghost who hasn't eaten for a whole year will be too hungry to care."
I just can't relate to this!
Moreover, I was talking about music with someone, and how a lot of Western classical has religious origins (as well as traditional Chinese music), and how attending a concert in a religious structure, like a church, is quite different (and, in my opinion, often more satisfying) from listening to music in a big concert hall. When I asked her whether one could organize a Chinese traditional music concert in a temple, she laughed and said "you mean people would have to pay entrance?" She then told me that even though a temple could serve as a venue, it would never attract "elite" people, as it's too much of a "local" environment, and therefore a concert would not be possible.
I must admit there are issues with music in churches abck home: sometimes church authorities don't want to use them as concert venues (as it risks secularizing the structure), and concert-goers are often wary of entering churches, just because it's seen as an atmosphere non-grata. However, generally speaking there is a lot of dialogue between professional musicians and religious spaces. Here, many people have told me, music is not especially chereished. In fact, the reason I was discussing using a religious space as a venue for music appreciation with the person I mentioned before is because were were discussing an article in which a top-notch Chinese sheng player was lamenting the lack of interest in traditional music and expressed the hope that by immigrating to the States he might find a way to popularize it there, and it would eventually make its way back to China.
Now why am I talking about all of this? To come back to the ghost month rituals, my feeling is that there is not much invested in the mysterious beauty of religious ritual...it's more about stuffing money into a lit drum to prevent your household and business from possible misfortune. Whether it's the ghost month or a weather report that prevents you from going to the sea, it hardly matters, because the main point is "don't go to the sea."
Anyway, I hope I haven't been offensive in any way, I just wanted to offer some of my honest personal observations.
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