At the same time, since Taiwan began to democratize
during the 1980s, temple cults have been more than passive
observers of modernization and changing state policies; they
now play activist roles in community life by building libraries
and community centers, sponsoring cultural activities, such
as chess tournaments and classes in traditional fine arts, and
engaging in a wide range of charities. Presidential and legisla-
tive candidates network with local elites and strive to attract
grassroots support by campaigning at temples to popular
local deities, while some aspiring politicians have attempted
use temple cults to advance their own interests against those
of the state. One example of the intense and also complex
links between religion, politics, and identity in contemporary
Taiwan involves the abortive attempt by a prominent Mazu
temple known as the Zhenlan Gong to undertake a direct
pilgrimage to the goddess’s ancestral temple in Fujian during
the spring and summer of 2000, a move that challenged the
policies of the then newly elected government of President
Chen Shui-bian.
The flourishing of Taiwan’s many religious traditions
should come as no surprise to those who have studied the
history of Chinese culture during the late imperial and mod-
ern eras. Religious associations and their sacred sites have
long constituted one of the most important public spaces in
Asian societies, and have been key arenas where elites and
representatives of the state vied to assert or reinforce their
dominance over local culture and society. In Taiwan today,
democratization has further enhanced the importance of reli-
gion in community life, and prompted representatives of the
state to be more proactive in terms of interacting with the
island’s religious traditions. A similar process may be begin-
ning in China, where local communities are slowly begin-
ning to reassert their autonomy and religious networks are
once again functioning as a second government in the sense
of providing services and mobilizing the population. The ex-
tent to which the growth of local religious traditions may
have a long-term impact on modern Chinese society remains
to be seen, but the outpouring of new ethnographic work on
China, as well as the continuing efforts of scholars research-
ing Taiwan and Hong Kong, should give us a more compre-
hensive perspective on this issue in the future.
SEE ALSO Buddhism, article on Buddhism in China; Chi-
nese Religion, overview article; Christianity, article on
Christianity in Asia; Daoism, overview article.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A massive corpus of Chinese-language scholarship on Taiwanese
religions has been published since the mid-1980s. Good in-
troductions to this subject may be found in Chang Hsun and
Jiang Tsann-terng, eds., Taiwan bentu zongjiao yanjiu daolun
(Taipei, 2001), and Chang Hsun and Jiang Tsann-terng,
eds., Taiwan bentu zongjiao yanjiu de xin shiye han xin siwei
(Taipei, 2003). Some Western-language works also provide
valuable introductions to Taiwan’s religious traditions, in-
cluding Philip Clart and Charles B. Jones, eds., Religion in
Modern Taiwan: Tradition and Innovation in a Changing So-
ciety (Honolulu, 2003); Paul R. Katz and Murray A. Rubin-
stein, Religion and the Formation of Taiwanese Identities (New
York, 2003); and Robert P. Weller, Alternate Civilities: De-
mocracy and Culture in China and Taiwan (Boulder, Colo.,
1999). See also a special issue of The China Quarterly 174
(June 2003), edited by Daniel L. Overmyer, entitled Religion
in China Today. Scholars can also keep up with develop-
ments in the field by visiting the websites of the Taiwan As-
sociation of Religious Studies (tars.org.tw/tars.htm) and the
Society for the Study of Chinese Religions (www.
indiana.edu/~sscr).
Those who wish to learn more about Taiwan’s historical develop-
ment before exploring its religious traditions should begin by
consulting Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., Taiwan: A New Histo-
ry (Armonk, N.Y., 1999), which provides a fine overview of
the island’s history. Stevan Harrell and Huang Chun-chieh,
eds., Cultural Change in Postwar Taiwan (Boulder, Colo.,
1994) treats the island’s recent cultural development, while
Melissa J. Brown, Is Taiwan Chinese? The Impact of Culture,
Power, and Migration on Changing Identities (Berkeley, 2004)
considers important issues of ethnicity and identity. Useful
background information about Taiwan may also be found
on the Formosa website prepared by the Reed Institute (aca-
demic.reed.edu/formosa/formosa_index_page/formosa_
index.html), as well as on Taiwan’s Government Informa-
tion Office website (www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/
index.html).
Those wishing to begin their research by reading relevant second-
ary literature should consult the following bibliographies:
Laurence G. Thompson, Chinese Religion in Western Lan-
guages: A Comprehensive and Classified Bibliography of Publi-
cations in English, French, and German through 1980 (Tuc-
son, Ariz., 1985); Laurence G. Thompson and Gary Seaman,
Chinese Religions: Publications in Western Languages, Vol. 2:
1981–1990 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1993); Thompson and Sea-
man, Chinese Religions: Publications in Western Languages,
Vol. 3: 1991–1995 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1998); and Thomp-
son, Seaman, and Zhifang Song, Chinese Religions: Publica-
tions in Western Languages, Vol. 4: 1996–2000 (Ann Arbor,
Mich., 2002). Another key source of information is the bibli-
ography prepared by Philip Clart (web.missouri.edu/
~religpc/bibliography_CPR.html), which is updated on a
regular basis. For a thorough bibliography of Chinese-
language and Japanese-language scholarship, see Lin Mei-
rong, ed., Taiwan minjian xinyang yanjiu shumu (zengding
ban), rev. ed. (Nankang, Taiwan, 1997).
A great deal of research has been done on Taiwan’s Aboriginal
peoples and their religious traditions, but relatively little has
been published in English. A good place to start is John R.
Shepherd’s Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan
Frontier, 1600–1800 (Stanford, Calif., 1993), which pro-
vides an excellent account of Taiwan’s Plains Aborigines.
Numerous scholars at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia
Sinica, such as Huang Ying-kuei and Pan Ing-hai, have pub-
lished extensively on Aboriginal religion in both Chinese and
English, and scholars may keep track of their results by visit-
ing the Institute of Ethnology website (www.sinica.edu.tw/
ioe/english/index.html) and reading the Institute’s Taiwan
Journal of Anthropology. Useful background information may
also be found in a special report on Taiwan’s aborigines in
Cultural Survival Quarterly 26, no. 2 (2002), available at8966 TAIWANESE RELIGIONS