Buddhist Revival under State Watch
André Laliberté ()
Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, 2011, vol. 40, issue 2, 107-134
Abstract:
The Chinese Communist Party has shown tolerance, if not direct support, for the growth of Buddhism over the last few decades. Three explanations for this lenient attitude are explored in this article. The flourishing of Buddhism is encouraged by the state less for its propaganda value in foreign affairs than for its potential to lure tourists who will, in turn, represent a source of revenue for local governments. Buddhist institutions are also establishing their track record in the management of philanthropic activities in impoverished area where local governments lack the resources to offer specific social services. Finally, the development of such activities has contributed to enhance cooperation between China and Taiwan, whose governments have a vested interest in the improvement of relations across the Strait. The article concludes that the growth of Buddhism in China results from the initiatives of Buddhists themselves, and the government supports this growth because it serves local politics well.
Keywords: China; Taiwan; communist party; Buddhism; philanthrop (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-07
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jcca/article/view/419 (application/pdf)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gig:chaktu:v:40:y:2011:i:2:p:107-134
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/china-aktuell
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell from Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Karsten Giese () and Heike Holbig ().