Transcript–Religious Racialization short lecture
Religious Racialization
Legacies of Discrimination
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This painting (circa 1872) by
John Gast
called American Progress, is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west. Here
Columbia
, a personification of the United States, leads civilization westward with American settlers, stringing telegraph wire as she sweeps west; she holds a school book. The different stages of economic activity of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation.
|
Occident
|
Orient
|
|
Christian Supremacy
|
non-Christian
|
|
White Supremacy
|
Asian
|
|
American Exceptionalism + Manifest Destiny
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Threat to White-Christian purity
|
Ideology that is put into practice due to: economic motivation and job competition.
America’s racial hierarchy
White
Black
Native Americans
Where do the Asians fit?
Racial hierarchy
Real world materialization
Racist policies
anti-Asian immigration and exclusion
denial of naturalization rights
In discussion of politics and immigration, religion has often time been left out of the equation:
Christianity supremacy fuel white supremacy and white racism.
Religious racialization = expression of Christian and white supremacy
Religious Racialization
Legacies of Discrimination
American Progress
American Exceptionalism
Occident Orient
Christian Supremacy non-Christian
White Supremacy Asian
American Exceptionalism + Manifest Destiny Threat to White-Christian purity
Legacies of Discrimination
• Racial hierarchy
• Orientalism
• Christian supremacy + White supremacy
- Religious Racialization�Legacies of Discrimination
American Progress
American Exceptionalism
- Slide Number 4
Legacies of Discrimination
- Slide Number 6
- Slide Number 7
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 220.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 221.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 223.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 224.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 225.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 230.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 232.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 233.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 236.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 237.
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Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 243.
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Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 247.
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Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 248.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 249.
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AMERASIA JOURNAL 22:l (1996):107-
132
Journey to the
Chinese Buddhism
Far West:
n America
I R E N E LIN
Chinese Buddhism in America
A number of interesting studies have appeared on Chinese religions
in America. However, the direct application of current Western reli-
gious studies classification schemes and labels to the study of Chinese
religions and practices in the United States is problematic. Situating
new and unfamiliar religious groups solely within the available cat-
egorical schemes predisposes a ”colored” understanding of the new.
For example, Stark and Bainbridge’s elaboration on the church, sect,
and cult typology, based on a continuum of tension that exists be-
tween religious groups and the socio-cultural environment, requires a
Christian understanding of religious organizational splintering and
formation.’
In contemporary Chinese religious culture, however, there is no
centralized ecclesiastical authority to establish orthodoxy or orthopr-
my, or “hierarchical” organizational structures equivalent to the Western
typology of church, sect, and cult.’ Religious authority and acceptance in
the society are often gained through the spiritual attainment of the group
founder as manifested by supernatural powers of blessings, healing, or
averting calamities affecting potential members. Furthermore, the offer-
ing of social services or conversion of believers through the founder’s
charisma adds legitimacy. Chinese culture does not view religious
traditions and groups as mutually exclusive. A person can belong to
different religious organizations simultaneously and appeal to one or
another or even many. Religious authority is diffused among a great
number of decentralized and varied independent religious groups-
some small, some large.
IRENE LIN is a doctoral student in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford
University and interested in Chinese, Japanese and Asian American religions.
107
AMERASIA JOURNAL
Given the classification issues, the existing scholarship on Chi-
nese religions and their establishments can be roughly grouped into
three types. The first covers research on indigenous Chinese religions
which were transplanted to the United States by the earliest Chinese
immigrants between 1854-1883 and the Chinese temples of Northern
California built by these immigrants. The second focuses on Chinese
Buddhism in the larger context of Buddhist traditions in America.
The third includes short descriptions of selected Chinese Buddhist or-
ganizations in America, primarily found in encyclopedias of Ameri-
can religion^.^
The study of Buddhism in the United States is largely based on
European American experiences and encounters with Buddhism This
literature has been dominated by studies on Zen, Tibetan Buddhism,
Theravada traditions, and the Japanese “new religion,” Soka-gakkai/
Nichiren Shoshu (the soka gakkai separated from Nichiren Shoshu
Priesthood in 1991). This selective emphasis reflects Buddhist tradi-
tions that have attracted European American interest and f ~ l l o w i n g . ~
As a prime example of this bias, Charles Prebish uses the term
“American Buddhism” to describe the struggle of a foreign religious
tradition to acculturate and accommodate to the American mindset.6
Despite his focus on the acculturation process of American Buddhism
over three time periods, Prebish neglects the Buddhism of Asian Ameri-
cans. To bring their experience into his framework, one would need
to develop new labels and expand the perimeter of the term ”accultura-
tion of Buddhism” to account for the Buddhist experiences of the Asian
Americans. Similarly, Emma McCloy Layman examines Buddhism in
America from the vantage point of European Americans. She states that
“Buddhism in America does not really have an American style, but ap-
pears as an Oriental anachronism in a Western society. Some of the val-
ues. . .are consonant with those of the Judeo-Christian tradition. . .[T]he
ideology and practices of Buddhism are in conflict with the dominant
values of our technological, materialistic, and secular ~ o c i e t y . ” ~
The paucity of studies on Buddhism of Asian Americans also ex-
tends to the general ignorance about Chinese religions in America.
Chinese religions are no longer represented solely by ”joss houses,”
not merely characterized by ancestor worship in private homes, and
not adequately defined by the European American encounters with
them. Rather, the religious experience of Chinese Americans needs to
take into account the perspective of Chinese Americans themselves.
Recognizing such a need, this study begins the larger project by sup-
plying the institutional picture of specific communities of Chinese
Americans gathering for communal worship.
108
Journey t o the Far West
From 1965 to 1990, the Chinese American population increased
about four-and-a-half times, primarily driven by immigration. The
heterogeneity characterizing the Chinese immigration since 1965,
mainly a result of the quota system under the 1965 amendments to the
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and subsequent series of
amendments to the 1952 Act,* resulted in a proliferation of Chinese
religious organizations in the United States. Post-1965 Chinese Bud-
dhist organizations, an important subset of Chinese American reli-
gious organizations, have not received adequate attention in Asian
American or religious studies literature^.^
This preliminary examination identifies and explains issues relevant
to the understanding of Chinese Buddhist organizations through a case
study of Hsi Lai ssu (Hsi Lai means “coming to the West,” which con-
notes “the Buddha Dharma coming West”’O and ssu means temple), other-
wise known as the International Buddhist Progress Society, a Chinese
Buddhist organization in Hacienda Heights, ten miles East of Monterey
Park, in Southern California.’l Hsi Lai originated as a Taiwan-based,
ethnic-Chinese Buddhist organization with a predominantly middle-
and upper-class membership. This study explores how Hsi Lai functions
to retrieve, preserve, and create a post-1965 Chinese American identity
while at the same time bridging the realities and multiple subject po-
sitions occupied by a large, heterogeneous Chinese American popula-
tion–e.g., race, ethnicity, nationality, class, gender and religion.12
The Hsi Lai Temple13
The Hsi Lai Temple in Southern California is the largest overseas branch
of the Fo Kuang Shan (”Buddha’s Light Mountain”) in Taiwan. Fo
Kuang Shan was founded in 1967 by Master Hsing-yiin, the forty-eighth
Patriarch of the Lin-chi School of Ch‘an Buddhism. Hsing-yun, born in
1926 in China, became a novice monk at the age of twelve, and was fully
ordained three years later. Subsequently, he attended the Ch‘i-hsia
Vinaya School and the Chiao-shan Buddhist College. The Master left
China for Taiwan in 1949 and is perceived to have personally revital-
ized Buddhism in Taiwan. Hsing-yun was the first monk in Taiwan to
utilize television and radio programs to propagate Buddhism, and to
use public forums to give large-scale public lectures on Buddhism.14
For Hsing-yun, the revitalization of Buddhism “lies in its people,
wealth, spirituality and undertaking.” His methods for pursuing such
an end are through ”humanization,” ”modernization,” and ”interna-
tionalization,” in the form of Buddhist cultural, educational, social,
and medical programs. Fo Kuang Shan has evolved into the largest
Buddhist center in Taiwan, with many branches throughout Taiwan
109
AMERASIA JOURNAL
and the world. In the U.S., aside from the Hsi Lai Temple, there are
many branch temples in cities including San Francisco, San Diego,
Austin, Dallas, Denver, and New York, along with numerous local
chapters throughout the country. Prior to the construction of the Hsi
Lai Temple, Fo Kuang Shan’s first temple in the United States was an
old church in Maywood, called the Pai-t’a ssu (White Pagoda Temple),
which became too small to accommodate the needs of its members.I5
Hsi Lai Temple was built in 1988 and occupies over twenty acres.
Construction costs exceeded thirty million dollars, financed by dona-
tions primarily from Taiwan. Substantial donations were also received
from donors in other countries including the U.S., Malaysia, and Hong
Kong. The completion of the temple was delayed for two-and-a-half
years because of opposition from the community, composed of many
conservative, affluent, and retired European Americans, who had a
wide range of concerns and fears.16
For example, the nearby residents claimed that the temple would
be “oversized for a neighborhood of single-family homes, that it would
jam surrounding streets with traffic and that it would be a jarringly
inappropriate cultural presence.” Other concerns resulted from the
community’s misunderstanding of Buddhism and Chinese culture,
including noise from chanting of sutras, gongs, and firecrackers; the
“adverse influence” on the youth resulting from the unfamiliar cloth-
ing of Buddhist monks and nuns; the unfounded fear of animal sacri-
fices on the temple site (and thus the fear for neighborhood dogs be-
cause ”the Chinese all eat dog meat”); and the worry that the children
might be entrapped by the new “religious cult.”17
Six public hearings and over one hundred meetings took place be-
fore the Hacienda Heights city council finally granted the permit for con-
struction of Hsi Lai Temple. Hsi Lai had to address and accommo-
date the concerns and objections of the residents such as changing the
color of the temple to a less conspicuous one; lowering the height of
its buildings; foregoing the installation of a eighty foot golden statue
of the Buddha near the front entrance of the temple; taking measures
to lessen the chances of fires from its use of incense; limiting its park-
ing space to prevent too many people from going to the temple at
once and causing traffic problems; and erecting a wall on a section of
the freeway to prevent potential traffic hazards posed by the view of
the temple. Despite such opposition from the community before the
construction period, on the opening ceremony day of the temple, con-
gratulatory letters from U.S. Congressman Matthew Martinez, Secre-
tary of State of California, March Fong Yu, other heads of states, and
prominent Buddhist leaders from thirty countries were received.
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journey t o the Far West
Hsi Lai’s stated goal is threefold: to offer a spiritual and cultural
center for the United States, to provide Westerners a place for learning
about the Dharma, and to facilitate the exchange of culture between
East and West. When its policy requiring Hsi Lai members to con-
form to a unified standard of behavior set by Fo Kuang Shan is in con-
flict with its policy of blending Buddhism with the local culture, the
latter often takes precedence over the former.ls For example, all monks
and nuns at Hsi Lai wear amber-colored robes, whereas at Fo Kuang
Shan, such robes are reserved for those of higher ranks and lower-
ranked monks and nuns wear black robes. The reason for such a
change at Hsi Lai is that amber is more pleasing to the eye than black
for American visitors.
Organization
As an organization, Hsi Lai Temple consists of the temple, the Bud-
dhist Sangha (monastic order), and the Buddha Light International
Association (BLIA). The Hsi Lai temple provides not only a place of
worship but also a forum for lectures, discussions, classes, communal
rituals, and other Buddhist services and activities. Communal prac-
tices and other activities are conducted in Mandarin Chinese, with si-
multaneous English translation on most occasions, provided mainly
for one point five and second generation Chinese Americans. Further-
more, to accommodate the needs of its members, classes on Buddhism
are offered in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Religious activities
are offered on most weekday evenings and all day on weekends. Group
activities are created in accordance to the different groups’ varying
level of interest in and understanding of Buddhism.19
The massive physical structure of the temple includes the Bodhi-
sattva Hall, the Buddha Hall, V.I.P. suites, reception rooms, classrooms, a
gift shop, auditoriums, a museum, a memorial pagoda, a library, ad-
ministrative offices, and living quarters for the monks and nuns.22
The parking lot, which can accommodate two hundred cars, is often
insufficient to satisfy the parking needs during major holidays, such
as Chinese New Year’s eve and New Year’s day.
The temple is administered by monks and nuns hand-picked and
sent from Fo Kuang Shan. The number of monks and nuns that Fo
Kuang Shan deemed qualified to proselytize in the United States reached
fifty in 1988. After the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990, allow-
ing for religious workers to immigrate to the United States under the
fourth preference and to enter the United States as nonimmigrants
under R visas, the number of monks and nuns doubled. The organi-
zational hierarchy of Hsi Lai Temple is subsumed under that of Fo
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
Kuang Shan. The Religious Affairs Committee is the leading govern-
ing unit of the main monastery, subsidiary and associate monasteries,
and all other organizations and units.21
The third leg of the religious organization is the lay Buddha’s Light
International Association, established by Fo Kuang Shan in fifty-one
countries, with members reaching one million, predominantly made
up of Chinese and overseas Chinese. The goal of BLIA is to ensure that
”Buddhism moves from the monastic to the laity, from temple to society,
from self-realization to helping others, from quietude to action, from
disciple to teacher, from Taiwan to the world.”22 BLIA allows the laity
to take an active role in the propagation of the Dharma and the shap-
ing of ”contemporary Buddhism”;23 BLIA sponsors and organizes all
activities on and outside temple premises that are not a part of the regu-
larly scheduled rituals, practices, and religious services of the temple.
BLIA claims to be the fourth largest social organization in the
world; it applied for membership to the UN as a non-governmental
organization in February 1994. In the United States, it consjsts of
twenty-two chapters, nineteen sub-chapters, and five organizing com-
munities. The establishment of a local chapter typically starts with a
Hsi Lai member inviting friends in her local community to her home
for an informal discussion of the Dharma. After several meetings, when
the number of people attending reaches one hundred, formal lectures
on the dharma are set up, and group practice such as Dharma discus-
sion, meditation, and liturgy take place at members’ houses on a ro-
tating schedule. With permission from Hsi Lai Temple, a local BLIA
is established, accompanied by election of local chapter officers and
solicitation of donations from group members. The local chapter then
organizes large-scale Buddhist activities in its community, such as in-
viting monks and nuns from Hsi Lai Temple to talk on the Dharma.
At the end of such talks, attendees can officially ”take the refuges”
and become lay disciples of Master Hsing-yiin through ordination
ceremonies. It is by becoming lay disciples of Master Hsing-yiin that
individuals become official members of the Hsi Lai Temple.25
Social Functions
In addition to being a religious organization, Hsi Lai Temple serves as
a Chinese community center, helping the Chinese immigrants cope
more effectively with American society. During the initial stages of
the establishment of Hsi Lai Temple, the Abbess in charge at the time,
Venerable Tzu-chuang, under the instruction of Master Hsing-yiin,
emphasized free practical services for the overseas Chinese commu-
nity.26 Services included locating relatives and friends, helping immi-
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Journey t o the Far West
grants find jobs by providing channels for networking, and organiz-
ing seminars to educate immigrants about American laws, customs,
the educational system and job market. Hsi Lai Temple has expanded
such services over time, in conjunction with its propagation of the
Dharma. Its services as an overseas Chinese center now include free
transportation to and from the airport, free meals, and a place to stay
for those in need of such assistance.
In order to preserve, strengthen, or at times create the Chinese
identity of its members, Hsi Lai Temple offers Mandarin, Taiwanese,
and Cantonese classes, mainly to one point five and second generation
Chinese Americans. In addition, special classes on Chinese culture are
offered, including Chinese art, folk dance, music, cooking, and T’ai-chi,
which help overseas Chinese to keep in touch with their ancestral roots.
The vice-president of the BLIA Los Angeles chapter, a Chinese Ameri-
can, has said, “BLIA has soothed the hardships of the loss of roots due to
living in a foreign country, developing the limitless treasures within
our hearts, uniting the hearts of all Chinese globally.” At present, the
members of Hsi Lai Temple are predominantly Chinese, with increas-
ing numbers of Buddhists of other races and nationality joiningz7
Due to the lack of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the
United States, the de facto Taiwanese embassy, representing the gov-
ernment of Taiwan, is called the Coordination Council for North Ameri-
can Affairs (CCNAA). Hsi Lai Temple has offered its premises as the
reception hall for the CCNAA. The Temple has thus taken on some
functions of an embassy, becoming itself a de facto embassy. For ex-
ample, Hsi Lai has sought to help bridge the tensions between the
People’s Republic of China and Taiwan by hosting representatives of
both governments.28 It maintains good relations with political figures
both in the US. and abroad. American heads of state (for example, Vice
President Albert Gore) have visited Hsi Lai Temple, and Taiwanese
government officials have made the Temple a must stop upon their visit
to the West Coast.
The Temple also acts as a social relief center, providing aid to neigh-
boring communities, including donating money and books to local
schools, providing conference rooms free of charge for educational
and cultural group gatherings, and helping to preserve the environ-
ment and ecology through reforestation, recycling, and community
clean-up programs. BLIA sponsors soup kitchens for the homeless
and presents food baskets and gift certificates to low income families.
In addition, BLIA provides relief in times of natural disasters in the
Peoples’ Republic of China and the United States, and also sends aid
to Third World countries through local BLIA chapters.
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
Hsi Lai Temple opens its doors to visitors as a ”cultural center,”
fostering cross-cultural understanding. It regularly sponsors group
visits to the Temple; each month, groups totaling one to two thousand
people visit Hsi Lai, of which two-thirds are European American and
the remainder are mostly Chinese, with a few from other Asian coun-
tries. Individual visitors to the Temple are predominantly Chinese
Ameri~ans.2~ On the one hand, the Temple offers Chinese language
and cultural classes and sponsors Chinese cultural activities introducing
traditional and contemporary art forms to the community. On the other
hand, the Temple offers cross-cultural training programs such as Japa-
nese and Spanish language classes, Western dessert-making, social danc-
ing, and aerobics. In addition, Hsi Lai performs Buddhist religious and
cultural activities in the community at large. For example, Hsing-yiin
has performed a blessing service before the California State Senate.
To foster better understanding of American culture for Chinese
Americans, Hsi Lai Temple also offers activities celebrating American
holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. Furthermore, to fa-
miliarize it members with non-Buddhist religious holidays and cel-
ebrations that occur each month, articles on various traditions are
regularly featured in the Temple’s newsletter, Hsi Lai News.
Hsi Lai Temple proclaims itself to be the ”home” for all its mem-
bers. The family atmosphere is created and sustained through numerous
services and activities. The Temple maintains a very large kitchen and
dining facilities, serving three buffet style vegetarian meals every day
to the clergy and laity. Most of the members who live nearby eat daily at
the temple. Furthermore, Hsi Lai provides living quarters in houses it
owns, adjacent to temple grounds, to those members who wish to stay
there as the need arises, especially those living far away from the
Temple?O
The emphasis is on individual Buddhist families coming “home”
for reunion with the large extended family. BLIA emphasizes that fami-
lies should spend more time together and accordingly sponsors regu-
lar activities which increase family involvement, such as parents-chil-
dren sports events, concerts, plays, and art shows. Moreover, to ac-
commodate the needs of two-income families, Hsi Lai Temple pro-
vides child and elderly care.
At the requests of parents, children’s classes are offered after
school and on weekends as a supplement to the regular schooling. In
the summer of 1994, Hsi Lai University opened on the premise of the
temple, with authorization from the California Superintendent of Public
Instruction, as a degree-granting school of theology. The university
offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Buddhist Studies. The con-
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struction of an East Coast campus on an already-purchased 470 acres in
New York State is being planned. Chinese parents who are concerned
with the liberal atmosphere of American universities can send their chil-
dren to receive higher education in a more conservative environment?*
Hsi Lai University tries to bridge the gap between Buddhist theol-
ogy and religious studies by having religious studies scholars on the
faculty. It also offers its ”state of the art” conference rooms and librar-
ies for use by religious studies scholars not affiliated with the univer-
~ i t y . ~ ~ Moreover, it sends qualified monks and nuns to pursue gradu-
ate degrees in religious studies at top-ranked universities.
BLIA sponsors adult and community education program by regu-
larly offering seminars and lectures to increase the lay understanding
of Buddhism. Moreover, BLIA provides lectures in local colleges, high
schools, city halls, stadiums, jails or senior centers. In addition to spon-
soring conferences, meetings, and exchange programs between Bud-
dhists of different traditions, BLIA also promotes dialogue and inter-
change between Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions. For instance,
Master Hsing-yiin has received visits from the Dalai Lama and ambassa-
dors from the Vatican.
In order to make the Buddhist teachings and Fo Kuang ideals eas-
ily accessible, Fo Kuang Shan operates its own publishing house and
audio-video production center, producing over four hundred Bud-
dhist publications, audio and video materials in Chinese, English, and
Korean, distributed in twenty countries. Upon the opening of Hsi Lai
University, Hsi Lai University Press was established in 1994, with the
initial agenda to publish Master Hsing-yun’s works in English.34
Periodicals are also published in Chinese and English by the dif-
ferent Fo Kuang organizations in order to update members on Fo Kuang
events and to propagate Buddhist teachings. These periodicals include
Awaken the World, Universal Gate, Hsi h i News, and Buddha’s Light Centu y.
Hsi Lai also uses other media to propagate its teachings to a broader au-
dience. For example, BLIA regularly sponsors programs on local ra-
dio stations and broadcasting networks and Hsi Lai Temple contrib-
utes Dharma talk-shows to a local Chinese television channel.
Analysis: Theoretical Suggestions
The Fo Kuang Hsi Lai Temple provides the context for overseas Chinese
to reinforce and reinvent Chinese identity through religion, ethnicity,
nationality, culture, family, and education. In response to a modern
industrial society characterized by pluralism, religion becomes sub-
ject to the forces of fashion, or what Peter Berger calls the dynamics of
”consumer p r e f e r e n ~ e . ” ~ ~ Competing for the individual’s time and
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
interest, Hsi Lai’s Buddhism has been ”designed, produced, and mar-
keted” with the needs of its members and potential members in mind.
At the current stage of Hsi Lai Temple’s development, its target is
mainly the overseas Chinese.
“Plausibility Super-structure”
In order for Hsi Lai Temple to maintain its meaning in a religiously
pluralistic and ethnically diverse society, a social base, or what Berger
calls a ”plausibility structure,” is necessary for its continuing exist-
e n ~ e . ~ ~ However, in most modern settings, for a religious group seek-
ing to maintain itself in pluralistic competition with other religious
groups, the social engineering problem is transformed from one of
enlisting the society as a whole for the purpose of social confirmation
into one of constructing and maintaining a subsociety that may serve
as the plausibility structure for the de-monopolized religious ~ y s t e m . 3 ~
Especially in the case of Hsi Lai, where Chinese Buddhists are
geographically separated by the Pacific from the main social group
that serves as its basis of plausibility, the significance of the plausibil-
ity structure becomes especially important. Because the world view
of the Chinese Buddhists is not shared by the American public at large,
Hsi Lai Temple needs to establish a subsocietal plausibility base to main-
tain their belief system. To avoid small subworlds of fragmented uni-
verses of meanings, Hsi Lai Temple has created a broad social base
which provides a more holistic universe of meaning. In its attempt to
provide an entire world view for the Chinese American Buddhists, it
has created a ”plausibility superstructure,” which incorporates numer-
ous substructures-namely a religious organization, an ethnic commu-
nity, a de facto embassy, a social relief center, a cultural center, and a
school. Through religion, these substructures serve diverse roles in creat-
ing and maintaining different aspects of the Chinese American identity.
For members, Hsi Lai Temple’s super social base for maintaining
and reinforcing its distinctive system of meaning, simultaneously en-
ables the fulfillment of religious, cultural, communitarian, national, fa-
milial, and educational needs. For non-member Chinese Americans,
the temple, religious rituals and practice, cultural events and activi-
ties, ethnic community, de facto embassy, and traditional and holiday
celebrations are available to each person for whatever purposes he or
she is seeking. The association through activities, in various forms,
creates opportunities for nonmembers to become socialized into the
Fo Kuang world view in varying degrees. This world view is de-
scribed in a booklet entitled “HOW to Be a Fo Kuang Buddhist,” re-
quiring members to place the monastery, the community, Buddhist
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undertakings, and Buddhism above the self.38 Hsi Lai Temple’s cre-
ative incorporation of numerous identities avoids compartmentaliza-
tion (separation of secular / sacred spheres) and solid boundaries in order
to accommodate the heterogeneous needs of the Chinese Americans.
At the lowest level of association are tourists, followed by those
who come to participate in cultural festivities or who come to take
advantage of the Temple’s cultural training courses, identifying with Hsi
Lai as an overseas Chinese community center. Then there are politi-
cians and celebrities who come to Hsi Lai Temple for social or politi-
cal reasons, identifying Hsi Lai as a large charitable organization or as
a de facto representative of the Taiwanese government. Alternatively
there are those who send their children to attend classes or the Uni-
versity, identifying Hsi Lai as a provider of education. There are Bud-
dhists who have not taken refuge under Master Hsing-yun, coming to
the temple only on important Buddhist holidays, who identify Hsi Lai
Temple solely as one religious organization among many.
Among those who have taken refuge and are disciples of Master
Hsing-yun, involvement and association with the temple also vary.
Some volunteer their services, some contribute money, and some partici-
pate in key rituals and services or some combination thereof. There are
some disciples that participate in all religious functions as individuals
and others who involve their entire family, participating in all activi-
ties and events, whether religious or not, truly identifying with Hsi
Lai as “home,” thus constituting the core members of the Temple.
Hsi Lai‘s Role in t h e “New Ethnicity“
There is no single Chinese identity in the United States or throughout
the world of the Chinese diaspora. Following the tendency of the
”Chinese people and Chinese culture which has been constantly amal-
gamating, restructuring, reinventing and reinterpreting themselves,”
overseas Chinese have been constructing their own cultural identities
in non-Chinese environment^.^^ The term, ”Chinese American,” is
both a political label and a symbolic identity label.40
The old concept of ethnicity based on the assumption of ”bio-cul-
tural-territorial isolate frame of reference” is no longer applicable to
the overseas Chinese in diaspora who have come to the United States
from different parts of the world.41 More applicable to these overseas
Chinese is the concept of “new ethnicity” as “an affective/symbolic
and behavioural strategy frame of reference, which is contingent upon
the larger social environmental context.”** “New ethnicity” represents
an attempt by members of ethnic minorities to balance the need for “a
sense of rootedness or belongingness” with the desires to ”alter the
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established distribution of power, privilege and prestige so as to gain
economic, political, and cultural rights / advantage^.”^^
Hsi Lai Temple provides the context for post-1965 Chinese Ameri-
cans to construct their identity, characterized by heterogeneity, hybrid-
ity, multiplicity, fluidity, and situation.44 This identity is made up of nu-
merous sub-identities including race, ethnicity, culture, nationality,
class, gender, and religion which may be selectively chosen and com-
bined or sometimes ascribed by the dominant community at large. Hsi
Lai serves as a multicultural resource for these Chinese Americans. It is
a cultural carrier in preserving traditional Chinese culture; a cultural
broker in bridging Chinese subculture and American culture; a cultural
entrepreneur in helping to define a new Chinese American identity.45
Through Hsi Lai’s offering of a wide-range of educational pro-
grams and activities, the content of Chinese and American identities
are being creatively selected and incorporated. Concurrently, while
Chinese identity can be affirmed, American identity can be strength-
ened. Thus identity becomes inclusive and not exclusive. Through cul-
tural training classes and activities-retrieving and recreating Chinese
national and traditional culture, in addition to introducing and par-
taking in non-Chinese cultures-Chinese Americans who participate
in them can identify with their nation and tradition while at the same
time becoming international and transcending the limits of such cul-
t ~ r e . ~ ~ An added layer of identity provided by Hsi Lai is that of Chi-
nese Buddhists, in particular, Fo Kuang Buddhists. The construction
of a new ethnicity that can be manipulated situationally, may adequately
reflect the lives of Chinese Americans, who can choose to be ethnically
visible or invisible depending on whether such identity is valued or
deemed beneficial. Whether Hsi Lai can or will be used as a means for
mobilizing its members to further the political, social or economic in-
terests of members remains a question for the future.47
Revitalization
Because religious systems may serve to compensate for loss of native
culture, immigrant communities often reinscribe aspects of older tra-
ditions in their new context. In the case of post-1965 Chinese Ameri-
cans with nostalgia for Chinese roots, Hsi Lai Temple provides an in-
stance of religion serving to revive and construct Chinese culture and
identity for the Chinese Americans, ensuring relevance to their differ-
ential situations. Furthermore, Hsi Lai furnishes an example of how
Buddhism has been revitalized to accommodate the needs of modern
industrial society and to adapt to the culturally pluralistic environ-
ment.48
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Journey t o t h e Far West
Hsi Lai Temple strives to make Buddhism relevant to modern so-
ciety. It refashions and repackages tradition to fit the modern context
through its choice of organizational structure, design of activities for
members, potential members, and the community, and use of modern
mass media and technology. Traditional Buddhist ways are changed
by ”coming out of the forest and entering into society,” and serving the
community through ”involvement in families, nations, and the
Past ”distorted” images of Buddhism are transformed from “passivity
to activity,” from ”pessimism to optimism,” from ”aversion to the world
to engagement in the society and love of existence,” and from the prac-
tice of asceticism to practice in a quiet, wealthy and comfortable envi-
ronment .50
Hsi Lai’s emphasis on this-worldly orientation, as opposed to the
traditional other-worldly orientation, is manifested in its goal to cre-
ate a Buddhist Pure Land (or Buddhist ”paradise”) on earth here. Master
Hsing-yiin advocates the ideal of “placing wealth among the devo-
tees.” He sees to it that modern facilities are built so that Buddhist devo-
tees can practice in a surrounding replete with wealth and comfort. In
tangible ways, Fo Kuang Shan can be viewed as the Eastern Pure Land
and Hsi Lai Temple, the Western Pure Land-sacred, prosperous, and
serene. Through BLIA and its effective mass media, the local is tran-
scended, globalized and unified. In the Buddha’s Light newsletter, Fo
Kuang Shan is introduced as a Buddhist sacred place to which believ-
ers can make pilgrimages?’
Another illustration of Hsi Lai Temple’s this-worldly orientation
is its development of a Buddhism for daily life, represented by the
BLIA. By keeping old ways alive while teaching new ways, and pro-
viding a stable source of meaning and belonging, this ”megatemple”
serves as a sheltering canopy of legitimation €or the Chinese Ameri-
cans’ new identities by reference to their tradition.52 Traditional func-
tions of the temple, such as offering talks on the Dharma and provid-
ing a place for religious practice, are expanded to accommodate the
needs of the communities-for example in performing ceremonies for
anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, and commemorations.
Asian American Panethnicity and Asian American Panethnic
Buddhist Organization
For post-1965 Chinese immigrants who are multicultural, multilingual,
and from different socio-economic backgrounds, ”Asian American pan-
ethnicity” in terms of a consciousness of shared culture, language and
religion is still a foreign concept. Espiritu’s referent for ”Asian American
panethnicity” is based on the institutionalization of Asian American
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
consciousness, reflecting an efficient mobilization of diverse people
based on shared political, social, and economic interests or experience on
a case-by-case b a ~ i s . 5 ~ For post-1965 Chinese immigrants, to the extent
that religion and culture are intertwined, the boundaries between differ-
ent Asian/Asian American cultures may not be as fluid and situational.
They do not share the same world view and experiences as American-
born or American-raised Asians. The impact of pan-Asian identity,
however, may increase with the immigrant children’s coming of age.
Hsi Lai Temple, with its predominance of post-1965 Chinese im-
migrants, has not yet moved towards becoming an Asian pan-ethnic
Buddhist organization. Aside from the overwhelming majority of mem-
bers of Chinese origin, currently there is a slow but steady increase of
European American members. Hsi Lai strongly encourages and sup-
ports the joining of European American members. For example, Hsi Lai
N m s regularly has articles featuring the profiles of new European Amer-
ican members.54 The implications of this phenomenon of merging the
boundaries between Chinese Americans and European Americans, but
not between Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans, in a reli-
gious community suggests more questions than this study can enter-
tain.
Hsi Lai is beginning to expand in the direction of reaching out to
other Asian American groups by participating in cross ethnic-Asian
Buddhist activities. On April 3,1994, for instance, Hsi Lai participated in
a Hanamatsuvi (flower festival) celebration sponsored by the Buddhist
Sangha Council of Southern California and the Japanese Buddhist Asso-
cia tion. Seven Buddhist organizations representing Chinese, Vietnamese,
Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, and Sri Lankan traditions came together to
participate in the celebration. In another instance, on August 21, 1994,
Hsi Lai invited monks from other Chinese, Sri Lankan, Thai, and Tibetan
temples and monasteries to parficipate in its Sangha (monastic order)
day.55 The joining zf different Asian Buddhist groups on different occa-
sions may represent a beginning of the joining of ethnic boundaries of
Buddhist groups. The next step for Hsi Lai istoward the expansion of
its membership to people of different Asian ethnic backgrounds. If
“Asian American panethnicity” consciousness is one characterized by
political identification for the purpose of effectively mobilizing diverse
people to further some common interests, an interesting topic for fur-
ther research is what role, if any, can religion play in providing a cul-
tural bond to fill in the content of “Asian American panethnic” con-
sciousness.
Hsi Lai is also attempting to expand the borders of its present sta-
tus as a Chinese Mahayana Buddhist organization to become a pan-
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Buddhist organization. Master Hsing-yun states that “no distinction
will be made in regards to area, country and race”; thus BLIA will
preach Buddhism with a view of the whole world as one?6 Towards this
goal, for the inauguration of the BLIA International Headquarters and
the First General Membership Conference held at Hsi Lai Temple from
May 17 through 22,1992, Hsi Lai Temple invited over four thousand
delegates from all five continents, bringing together Buddhists from
Southern (Theravada) and Northern (Mahayana) traditions, as well as
the exoteric (“Sutric”) and esoteric (Tantric) schools. In addition, Hsi Lai
signed an agreement with the Abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya Temple
in Thailand, representing the Theravada tradition, for the purpose of
cooperating on projects and exchanging monastic and lay personnel.
BLIA chapters worldwide also regularly sponsor conferences and meet-
ings among Buddhists of different tradition^.^^
There seems to be gap between the ideal of Buddhism as a non-
ethnic, a social truth, especially as articulated by Master Hsing-yun, and
the reality of Hsi Lai being an Buddhist organization centered around
creating a form of Buddhism and Buddhist community relevant to the
needs of its predominantly Chinese American members. Despite the
Temple’s attempt to encourage European Americans to join the orga-
nization, they remain a novelty. While European American members
are introduced in the Hsi Lai News, new Chinese American members do
not receive such attention or coverage in its newsletters.
Conclusion
Much of the Hsi Lai Temple’s success can be attributed to its ability to
retain cultural continuity with Taiwan, while at the same time modi-
fying its social base in accommodation to American culture. By pro-
viding a wide range of frequent activities and a network of internal
connections, it effectively moves its members to a high level of com-
mitment and involvement?8 An additional factor in its success is its
ability to attract and maintain members of different ages and eco-
nomic backgrounds. Master Hsing-yun particularly stresses the im-
portance of making Buddhism attractive to youth. Hsi Lai also pro-
vides structures and activities for effective primary socialization into
its unique world view by reaching out to entire families with children,
not just individuals. Moreover, it facilitates secondary socialization
through its structure and programs.59 Finally by providing a commu-
nity accepted by the American public at large, and the world at large,
and a “‘home” to the Chinese American Buddhists through its plausi-
bility super-structure, it makes its members feel at ease with their
unique identity and world view, and at the same time makes it easier
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for them to maintain and confirm the reality of their world.
This case study of Hsi Lai Temple provides one example of a di-
mension of Buddhism in America that has been largely overlooked
thus far-namely the Buddhism of Asian Americans. Even though
Buddhism represents both a religious and a cultural option for Euro-
pean Americans and Asian Americans, historically, their encounters
with and experiences of Buddhism have developed differently. Thus,
the unique experiences of Asian Americans with Buddhism need to
be examined from their perspective.
As illustrated by Hsi Lai, religion plays an important role in the
retrieving, preserving, reviving, and creating of cultural identities for
Chinese Americans, especially among recent immigrants. The construc-
tion of a “new ethnicity,” as a survival tactic, results from the Chinese
Americans’ attempt to preserve its tradition, while assimilating or ac-
commodating to the dominant culture. Therefore, the study of Asian
American religious organizations in general is at the intersection of
religious studies, comparative ethnic studies, and Asian American stud-
ies. Methodologies from these fields need to be employed jointly to
account for ethnic-Asian religious phenomena. However, rather than
adopting wholesale available methodologies and terminologies em-
ployed in the study of Judeo-Christian religions, we should employ new
methodologies and labels that are specific to non-European Ameri-
cans and non-Judeo-Christian phenomena.
Furthermore, the categories and labels used to study post-1965 Asian
American religious organizations will probably change with the fluid
development of these groups. Hsi Lai is (slowly) in the process of mov-
ing from a predominantly ethnic-Chinese Buddhist community to a
more “mixed Buddhist community,” attracting non-ethnic Chinese mem-
bers. To the extent the children of its Chinese immigrant members
come of age or “Asian-American panethnic” or “panethnic” members
become a reality, Hsi Lai may adapt its teachings, practices, and orga-
nization to accommodate the needs of these non-ethnic Chinese minori-
ties and/or Euro-Americans. How Hsi Lai chooses to balance the in-
terests of its ethnic-Chinese members and those of non-ethnic Chinese
members will play a significant role in determining its future.
An important area of research to pursue in the study of Chinese
religious groups in the United States is to ask if the phenomenon of
bridging traditional and modern aspects of religion and culture is oc-
curring in wider Buddhist and non-Buddhist contexts. Especially
promising is the comparative study of traditional Chinese religions in
Asia and Chinese American religions. The comparative study of Chi-
nese American religions and Japanese new religions, both in Japan
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Journey to the Far West
and in the United States, would enable us to d r a w parallels a n d differ-
ences, continuities a n d discontinuities. Such a study can, of course, be
extended to ethnic minority religions in general a n d other ”non-main-
line” religions.
Notes
The author would like to thank Carl Bielefeldt, Rudy Busto, Bernard Faure,
John Kieschnic, and Venerable Yifa of Hsi Lai Temple for thier help and con-
structive criticism.
Whereas the ”church is defined as an established religious body in the
society, both sect and cult are ”deviant” religious bodies in increasing
relative tension with their surrounding socio-cultural context. A ”cult”
in this model is defined as a movement with no previous ties to another
established religious body, originating in the host society through inno-
vation, or imported from another society. Curiously, under this typol-
ogy, if members of an imported cult are primarily an immigrant ethnic
population, then the cult is regarded as an ethnic church. Rodney Stark
and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival,
and Cult Formation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 25,18
9.
The suitability of applying Western religious studies labels, such as ”cult,”
to Chinese religions also needs to be examined. Upon the transforma-
tion from a religious organization that is based on ethnic population to
one which seeks to recruit converts from the broader population in the
United States, Chinese religions, according to this scheme, leave the do-
main of ethnic religions and enter the field of ”alternative religions.” The
change may trigger the labeling of “new religious movements” as alter-
natives to mainline American religions, i.e., those that are “not norma-
tively Judeo-Christian.” Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Religious and Spiritual Groups in
Modern America (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1973), 2.
The term ”cult,” however, is inappropriate on at least three grounds. First,
given its pejorative connotation, it generates fear and suspicion on the
part of the public. Second, it is supposed to refer to ”new“ religious groups
in society, but transplanted Chinese religions are hardly new and may
belong to long-established traditions in their country of origin. Third,
”cult” is a catch-all term that does not allow for adequate distinction
among different types of ”non-mainline American religions.” Given the
problems in applying Western category schemes and labels, a more fit-
ting terminology is desirable for studying Chinese religions in the United
States.
For discussions on new religious movements, see David G. Bromley and
Phillip E. Harmnond, eds., The Future of New Religious Movements (Macon,
Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1987); Jacob Needleman and George
Baker, eds., Understanding the New Religions (New YorkCity: Seabury Press,
1978); Geoffery K. Nelson, Cults, New Religions 6 Religious Creativity (Lon-
don: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987). Charles S. Prebish in American Bud-
dhism (North Scituate, Masachusetts: Duxbury Press, 1979), 173-174, discusses
the interpretation of the term “new” in the phrase of “new religion” as
”new in the sense of group, which has arisen in America within the last
one hundred fifty years and are still extant” and as “unusual or exotic.”
1.
123
AMERASIA JOURNAL
2. Other models have been applied to the Asian religions in the United States.
Peter W. Williams in America’s Religions: Traditions t? Cultures (New York
Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990), 417, uses the categories of eth-
nic religions, export religions, and cults or new religions to describe Asian
religions in the United States. Catherine L. Albanese in America: Religions
and Religion (Belmont, California: Wadsworth, Inc., 1992), 318, employs
the categories of ”church,” meditation, evangelical, and ethnic Buddhism
to characterize different Buddhist groups in the United States. Also see Jan
Nattier, ”Visible and Invisible: Jan Nattier on the Politics of Representation
in Buddhist America,” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review 5 (1995):42-49, who
posits the typology of elite, evangelical, and ethnic Buddhism. These
categories reflect similar biases of Western perspectives.
Indigenization is the process through which foreign-born religion changes
through contact with native religion and culture. See Kiyomi Morioka,
“Gairai shukyz no dochakuka o meguru gaineteki seiri [a conceptual exami-
nation of the indigenization of foreign-born religions],” Shicho 107 (1972):
52-57. Also see Carlyle C. Haaland, ”Shinto and Indigenous Chinese
Religion.“ Encyclopedia of American Religious Experience. C. H. Lippy and
P. W. Williams, eds., (New York Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988), 669-709.
Also, L. Eve Armentrout Ma, “Chinese Traditional Religion in North
America and Hawaii,” in Chinese America; History & Perspectives (San
Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1988), 131-147, which
is primarily a study of the religious practice of traditional or popular
Chinese religion which combines Buddhism, Taoism, elements of Con-
fucianism, and local cults. Ma states that many recent immigrants still
practice this Chinese traditional religion. Also see Mariann Kaye Wells,
Chinese Temples in California (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1962), 108; Peter Harvey, A n Introduction to Buddhism:
Teachings, Histoy, and Pructices (Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press,
1990); Emma McCloy Layman, Buddhism in America (Chicago: Nelson-
Hall, 1976); Prebish, 1979; Charles s. Prebish, ”Buddhism,” Encyclopedia of
American Religious Experience, C. H. Lippy and P. W. Williams, eds., (New
York Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988); and Rick Fields, How the Swans Came
to fhe Lake: A Narrafizx Hisioy ofBuddhism in America (Boston: Shambhala,
1992). The only Chinese Buddhist organization presented is the Sino-
American Buddhist Association in Northern California (in 1984, the name
of the organization was changed to Dharma Realm Buddhist Association);
see Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions (Wilmington:
North Carolina, McGrath Publishing Company, 1978), 424-4
30.
See Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Fall 1994, special section on “Dharma,
Diversity and Race.” According to bell hooks, ”Waking up to Racism,” 42-
44, many Buddhists of color in the U.S. do not have visibility. Victor
Sogen Hori in “Sweet and Sour Buddhism,” 48-52, states that Westerners in
the US. have projected their cultural attitudes onto Buddhism. In “Con-
fessions of a White Buddhist,” 54-56, Rick Fields asserts that ,4merican
Buddhism is being defined by the Whites in their own image. Addie Foye,
“Buddhists in America: A Short, Biased View,” 57, comments on the di-
vision of Buddhism into Asian American Buddhism and European Ameri-
can Buddhism that leads to the invisibility of African American Buddhists.
3.
4.
124
Journey to the Far West
5. For example, the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, formerly known
as the Sino-American Buddhist Association, is often portrayed as represen-
tative of the Chinese Buddhist organizations. Its association with Ch‘an/
Zen and its large European American following have attracted the at-
tention of scholars.
6. See Prebish, 1988.
7. Layman, 279.
8. Bill Ong Hing, Making and Remaking Asian America through Immigration
Policy, 2850-1990 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), 81. The 1965
amendments abolish the 1924 discriminatory national origins provision,
which was retained in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, fa-
voring immigrants of Western European origins. The subsequent series of
amendments of the 1952 Act in 1990, collectively referred to as the Im-
migration Act of 1990, provides for an overall increase in worldwide
immigration. The 1990 Act increases the allocation for both family-re-
lated and employee related immigration, and further creates a separate
basis by which “diversity” immigrants (nationals of countries previously
underrepresented since 1965 due to visa issuance), can enter the United
States. Amendments of the 1952 Act that are directed towards the increase
of Chinese immigrants entering the United States are as follows: The 1981
amendment creates a separate quota of 20,000 for Taiwan, which Taiwan
previously shared with China and Hong Kong. In 1987, the annual quota
for Hong Kong was increased from 600 to 5000, then to 10,000 from 1990
to 1993 and subsequently to 20,000. Furthermore, thousands of students
were admitted from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asian countries, and
the People’s Republic of China. See INA 5 201- 5 203; aside from the Clu-
nese immigrants from Chma, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, ethnic Chinese im-
migrants who entered the United States are composed of refugees from
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia who were admitted to the United States
since 1975 and the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian and Latin Ameri-
can countries facing anti-Chinese discrimination and political unrest. This
latter group came to the United States for a more stable investment envi-
ronment and better educational opportunities for their children. L. Ling-
chi Wan& “Roots and the Changing Identity of the Chinese in the United
States,“ The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, Tu
Wei-ming, ed., (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 196. See INA 5
207. As an unintended consequence, however, the amendments to the
1952 Act serve to polarize the Chinese immigrants into two categories:
professionals and service-workers; Peter Kwong, in The New Chinatown
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1987), 22, names these two categories as “the
Uptown Chinese,” made up of the professionals who do not settle in
Chinatowns and “the Downtown Chinese,“ made u p of manual and ser-
vice workers who tended to live in Chinatowns with their sponsoring rela-
tives of similar humble origin from rural areas of southern China. In
addition to the differences in the place of birth and socio-economic class,
the Chinese Americans differ in their native dialect and place of origin,
e.g., China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Latin America, ac-
cording to Hing, 86-87.
125
AMERASIA JOURNAL
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
One motivation for focusing on this subset is that Chinese American
Buddhists are characterized by the superposition of two culturally dif-
ferentiating factors: non-European heritage and non-Judeo-Christian
belief. The combination of these two factors engenders unique experi-
ences which warrant separate study and presents distinctive method-
ological challenges. Examples of Chinese Buddhist organizations that
have arisen since the late 1960s include Hsi Lai Temple, True Buddha
School, Dharma Realm Buddhist Association (previously known as the
Sino-American Buddhist Association), and Buddhist Tzu-Chi Associa-
tion of America.
Since Hsi Lai Temple uses the Wade-Giles systems, Chinese terms re-
lated to the Temple will be transliterated using the Wade-Gile,; ‘ s y stem
instead of Pinyin. See Heinrich Dumoulin’s Zen Buddhism: A tlistory-
India and China (New York Macmillan Publishig Company, 1988), for the
legend of Bodhidharma, the twenty-eighth Indian Patriarch and first Patri-
arch of Ch‘an in China. Bhodhidharma is said to have come to China
from the West (India), bringing the ”seal of the Buddha m i n d from the
motherland to China. Hsi Lai can be alternatively rad as ”coming from
the West,” depicting the Dharma having come from the West and now
returning to the West.
See Timothy Fong’s The First Suburban Chinatown: The Remaking of Monterey
Park, California (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994). The subject
of the paper, religious organizations, should be distinguished from re-
ligious consciousness. As used here, a religious organization is a commu-
nity gathered for common worship and furtherance of a religious belief.
Religious consciousness, on the other hand, is an awareness of or inter-
est in a religious belief, with differing intensity, which may entail pri-
vate or common worship. Thus private forms of worship are not within
the scope of this study. Much of Chinese traditional religion in the United
States represents what Carlyle Haaland calls an ”invisible institution,”
whose rituals are conducted in private. Also see Williams, America’s Reli-
gions, 419.
A basic assumption here is that religion can help to construct Chinese
American identity by maintaining and constructing Chinese culture at
the periphery. This notion of periphery is twofold: geographically, Chi-
nese culture is being constructed in the United States, far from China.
Culturally, it is being constructed by Chinese Americans, away from the
”American mainstream.” See Tu Wei-ming’s discussion, ’Cultural China,”
1-34, of “cultural China” being shaped by the periphery instead of the
center by the Chinese in diaspora.
The main sources for this case study include books, newsletters, jour-
nals, booklets, and flyers published by Hsi Lai Temple, a related orga-
nization or by an unrelated third party commissioned by Hsi Lai. Most
of the information regarding the detailed operation of the temple, its
founder, and its history is published in Chinese, whereas information
on its activities and objectives is available in both Chinese and English.
This study also relies on personal observations of the rituals and activi-
ties, in addition to conversations with members of the monastic order and
laity at Hsi Lai. Most of the members of the order at Hsi Lai have a good
126
Journey to the Far West
command of at least two languages in any of the following combination:
Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, and Japanese. Many of the monks /nuns in
higher administrative ranks studied at graduate schools primarily in
Japan and secondarily in the U.S.
Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing (Hacienda Heights, California: Hsi Lai Univer-
sity Press, 1994).
Hsing-yun wrote articles which called for reform of the practice of Bud-
dhism, spoke out against governmental interference in religion, and
suggested the establishment of laws assuring equal treatment of all re-
ligions in Taiwan. Hsing-yiin, (Perfectly Willing), 5; and Hsing-yun (Per-
fectly Willing), 134-135. In the Chinese version of the text, the two terms
of jen-chien (translated as “humanitarian” Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 76
or ”humanistic” Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 4) and skeng-huo (daily life)
is subsumed in the English translation into ”humanization.” In this context
I think Hsing-yiin is trying to convey that Buddhism is being made rel-
evant to daily life, or socially engaged; see Hsing-yun, How to Be a Fo Kuang
Buddhist (Hacienda Heights, California: International Buddhist Progress sod-
ety, 1987); Fo Kuang Shan has branches in the United States, Canada, Ar-
gentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Costa Rica, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Australia, England, Switzerland, Germany, France, and
Russia; Fu Chi-ying (Ckuan deng: Hsing-yiin fa shik ckuan [handing down
the light: The Biography of Venerable Master Hsing-yiin] Taipei, Taiwan:
Commonwealth Publishing Company, 1995), 2
54.
Hsing-yiin brought back five blocks of bricks from India, holy sand from
the Ganges, and mud from Fo Kuang Shan, which were all deposited into
the foundation of Hsi Lai Temple-illustrating that “although the source of
the pulse of Dharma is far, the flow of the Dharma reaches far,” Fu, 2
52.
In November 1988, Life magazine published a picture of Hsi Lai naming
it the largest temple in the Western hemisphere. In the following year,
Reader‘s Digest also had an article on Hsi Lai. Ibid. Los Angeles Times,
January 10,1988.
Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1988; Fu, 1995,254.
Zbid., 252; see Hsing-yun, (1987); Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing, 4.
Communal practices and activities include talks, classes, meditation re-
treats, short-term monastic retreats, Five precepts retreats and Amitabha
Buddha Seven-day chanting retreats. The short-term monastic retreat
provides the participants with first-hand experience of monastic life for
five days. The five precepts are not to kill, not to steal, not to lie, not to
engage in improper sexual conduct, and not to use intoxicants. Aside from
the general activities open to all, there are special activities for the Fo Kuang
Women and Fo Kuang Youth associations. Hsi Lai Temple also regularly
offers separate Buddhist camps and retreats to accommodate the differ-
ent needs of its members: college students, children, teenagers, retired
people, teachers, and mothers / housewives.
The Bodhisattva Hall houses images of Samantabhadra (representing great
practice), Ksitigarbha (representing benevolence), Maitreya (the Future
Buddha). Avalokite’svara (representing great compassion), and MaiijugA
(representing great wisdom); The Buddha Hall has images of Bhai?ajyaguru
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
127
AMERASIA JOURNAL
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
(Medicine Buddha), Sakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha), and
Amitabha Buddha( Buddha of eternal light).
The average age of the monks/nuns is thirty years old. The nuns out-
number the monks at Hsi Lai; Our Report, 1995, 44. The Religious Af-
fairs Committee, made up of thirteen members and seven alternates, elected by
secret ballots, serves a term of six years. The Abbot of Fo Kuang Shan, elected
by the committee members, acts as the chairperson of the committee and
spends a maximum of two terms in office. The Religious Affairs Commit-
tee consists of Veterans Council, Domestic Supervisory Council, Inter-
national Supervisory Council, Education Council, Culture Council, Fo
Kuang Shan Culture and Educational Foundation, Fo Kuang Pure Land
Cultural and Educational Foundation, University Education Organizing
Committee, Buddha’s Light International Association Development
Committee, International Buddhist Progress Society, Religious Affairs
Advancement Committee, and Cultivation Center. Our Report, 1995,43-
44.
Fu, 275,270. Master Hsing-yiin has retired from the position of abbot of
Fo Kuang Shan and has become actively involved with the BLIA; BLIA
claims that the benefits of joining its organization include meeting fel-
low members and having many friends, increasing wisdom in home
fellowship meetings, skill training programs, assistance in job hunting,
increasing business contacts, getting personal advice, participating in
Buddhist study clubs, being hosted by fellow members while traveling
around the world, assistance in funeral, marriage, and other events, and
”sanctifying the spirit” by participating in countless activities. Hsing-yun,
The Buddha’s Light l n t m a t i u n a l Association: who Are We? (Hacienda Heights,
California: BLIA Headquarters, 1994):5.
The Buddha’s Light International Association, 1995.
According to BLIA, the other three largest social organizations are the
Rotary Club, the Lion’s Club, and the United Way. Fu, 279. On the inau-
guration day of the BLIA International Headquarters and the First General
Membership Conference at Hsi Lai Temple, Former President of the United
States, George Bush and President of Taiwan, Li Teng-huei sent letters
of congratulations.
Hsing-yiin, The Buddha‘s L i g h t International Association: w h o Are We?
(1994):20. These figures are as of January 1994; The information on how
to set up a BLIA chapter is from the Fo K u a n g S h i h C h i [Buddha’s Light
Newsletter], February 1,1993. Prominent members of the Chinese commu-
nity are asked upon their visit to the temple to initiate setting up a BLIA
chapter in her community and to become the head of the local chapter; af-
ter taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha (Buddhist
monastic order), the participants become newly initiated Buddhists.
The Fo K u a n g S k a n , 39.
Hsing-yun, 1994,13; Fu, 1995,274,275. According to the H s i Lai News,
during the January, 1994, Precept Retreat, of the four hundred devotees
that came from different parts of the country and Canada, seventy-five
were “Western Buddhists.” O.B.M., 1994.
Fu, 2
53.
128
Journey to t h e Far West
29. The figures for individual visitors to the temple were not available at
the time of the study; group visitors include Buddhist and non-Buddhist
religious groups, politicians, students, and military personnel.
Only lunch is open to visitors of the temple, however a donation of five
dollars is required; occasions for staying in the houses owned by Hsi Lai
include late evening ceremonial rituals, week-long retreats or celebrations
of Buddhas‘ or Bodhisattvas’ birthdays or enlightenment days.
Some of these events include performances by the different Hsi Lai or-
ganizations, such as Hsi Lai Women’s Association, Hsi Lai Youth Asso-
ciation, and Buddha‘s Light Symphony Orchestra, and Buddha‘s Light
choirs; to accommodate the concerns of many parents that “the modern
world presents children with a precarious environment for growing up,”
BLIA regularly sponsors a ”safe, fun, and productive environment” in
which children and youth can enjoy themselves while learning new skills
and meeting new friends. During summer and winter vacations, BLIA
sponsors retreat camps. During the course of the year, BLIA provides com-
petitions in music, art, public speaking, and writing. In addition, BLIA
youth groups visit sister youth groups in other communities, providing
a chance for participants to learn new cultures and customs, and make
new friends.
Fo Kuang Shan, Our Report, 1995,26; In Taiwan, Fo Kuang Shan oper-
ates successful pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, junior high, high
schools, college, and graduate programs on its premises. Its reputation
for turning out well-disciplined and well-educated students in Taiwan
led Chinese parents in the U.S. to ask that Hsi Lai Temple provide a simi-
lar educational environment in the U.S. The opening of Hsi Lai Univer-
sity is a step towards accommodating this request.
Hsi Lai has sponsored domestic and international academic conferences
such as International Buddhist Conference, the World Sutric and Tantric
Buddhist Conference, the International Buddhist Academic Conference,
and the Buddhist Youth Academic Conference. Hsing-yiin, 11.
The Fo Kuang publications include Buddhist sutras, commentaries, his-
tories, philosophy, liturgical texts, reference materials, and a collection
of Master Hsin-yun’s lectures and writings. Reference materials include
the Fo Kuang Tripitaka, a four-volume Fo Kuang Dictionary of Buddhist
terms and a table of important dates and events in Buddhist history. At
present, Hsi Lai is creating a CD-ROM version of the Buddhist Tripitaka;
Audio and video tapes featuring sermons, sutras, publications, songs, mu-
sic, and televised programs are available in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Can-
tonese, Hakka, and English. In 1995, over 250,000 audio and 35,000 video
tapes are in circulation. Fo Kuang Shan, Our Report, 1995,8; Hsing-yiin,
The Buddha’s International Association: Who Are We?, 1994.
The concept of religion as a consumer product and thus subject to con-
sumer preference is in Peter Berger, The Heretical Imperative: Contempo-
my Possibilities ofReligious Afirmation (New York Harper and Row, 1982.)
For comparative studies, see Sara Bershtel and Allen Graubard, Saving
Remnants: Feeling Jewish in America (New York The Free Press, 1992) for
a discussion for how synagogues in the United States appeal to the cur-
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
129
AMERASIA JOURNAL
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
130
rent social and cultural tastes of their clientele and more generally how
Jewish Americans are choosing their identities, freely creating and in-
corporating pieces of tradition, including varying degrees and elements
of religious and ethnic identities.
See Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Reli-
gion (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 45. Peter Berger asserts that worlds
are socially constructed and socially maintained. Thus, a religion or mean-
ing system requires a plausibility structure within which the reality, as
defined by the religious tradition is taken for granted and within which
successive generations of individuals are socialized in a way that the world,
as defined by the religious tradition, will be real to them. Ibid., 46.
Ibid., 49. Compare to religious monopolies of the past, ”[wlhen an en-
tire society served as the plausibility structure for a religiously legiti-
mated world, all important social processes within it served to confirm
and reconfirm the reality of this world.” Ibid.,
48.
Hsing-yiin, 1987.
David Yen-ho Wu, ”The Construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese Identi-
ties,” in The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, Tu
Wei-ming, ed., (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 151. Also see
Tu, 4 for a similar statement.
”The term ”Asian American” was adopted in order to allow a presumed
ethnicity to achieve political identity and group solidarity.” Paul Wong,
“The Emergence of Asian American Movement,” Bridge 2 (1972):32-39.
Evelyn Kallen, The Western Samoan Kinship Bridge: A S t u d y in Migration,
Social Change and N a u Ethnicity (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1982),
30. The concept of old ethnicity refers to “any arbitrary classification of
human populations utilizing the bio-cultural criterion of (actual or as-
sumed) common ancestry in conjunction with the geo-cultural criterion
of (common) ancestral territory and socio-cultural criterion of (common)
ancestral heritage (culture and social institutions).” Ibid., 29.
Ibid., 30.
ibid. The concept of new ethnicity has developed “as a symbolic system
which can be manipulated situationally so as to enable individuals and/or
groups to maintain and revitalize their sense of ethnic belonging (roots)
in context where this is valued and deemed advantageous, and to remain
ethnically invisible when other interests and identities (occupation, po-
litical affiliation and so forth) come to the fore.” Ibid., 31.
See Lisa Lowe, “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian
American Difference,” Diaspora 1 (1991) reference for the application of
the concepts of heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity to the character-
ization of Asian American culture.
See Bernard Wong, “Elites and Ethnic Boundary Maintenance: A Study
of the Roles of Elites in Chinatown, New York City” Urban Anthropology
6:l (1977):l-22, for a discussion of these concepts.
Shigeo H. Kanda argues in ”Recovering Cultural Symbols: A Case for Bud-
dhism in the Japanese American Communities,” Journal of the American
Journey t o the Far West
Academy of Religion 14 (4 supplement) 1978 : 445-475, that religious institu-
tions, (especially Shinshu Buddhism [Buddhist Churches of America]) play
a key role in sustaining, interpreting, and transmitting cultural symbols
and values. He argues that Buddhism, more than Christianity, is an impor-
tant receptacle for Japanese American tradition because of its bicultural
and ethnic characters. Kanda calls for the need to recover cultural symbols
and sees Buddhist symbols as capable of grafting on meanings from
other sources of cultural traditions. In contrast to Kanda’s view, the con-
cept of “new ethnicity” involves constructing cultural identities, beyond
just recovering cultural symbols and grafting meanings onto existing
symbols. It also entails creating new cultural and/or religious symbols
to reflect the heterogeneous needs of ethnic minorities in a new social con-
text.
For comparative studies, see Albanese, 43-47, for a discussion of how the
traditional Native American religions have served as vehicles for main-
taining Native American identity and encouraging political action.
For comparative studies see Robert N. Bellah, “Epilogue,” Religion and
Progress in Modern Asia (New York Free Press, 1965), 1W229. Bellah argues
that Japan faces four prospects of modernization, conversion to Christian-
ity, reformism, pure traditionalism, and neo-traditionalism. See Charles H.
Hambrick’s analysis, “Tradition and Modernity in the New Religious
Movments of Japan,” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1:2-3 (1974), 217-
253, of tradition and modernity in new Japanese religious movements
where he argues that they adapt a traditional myth-symbol system to a
modern situation, assuming the role of folk “neo-traditionalism.”
Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 3. The forest refers to the old Buddhist ideal of
the wandering renunciate of the forests vs. a newer ideal of settled
monastics in the villages. See Reginald A. Ray, Buddhist Saints in India
in India: A Study of Buddhist Values and Orientations (Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1994).
Hsing-yiin, The Buddha’a Light International Association: Who Are We?, 3;
Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing, 132-136.
Yung Kai, ed., “Buddhist Sacred Places of the World (3),” Buddhist’s Light
Newsletter (October 1992) 1:6.
This characterization of Fo Kuang Shan as a sacred place can be extended
to Hsi Lai due to its claim to be a Pure Land on Earth and a site housing
a bone relic of the historical Sakyamuni Buddha.
Compare Hsi Lai as a “megatemple ” to Calvary Chapel, an Evangelical
“megachurch in Santa Ana, California, that also provides a broad net-
work and activities for its members. See Randall Balmer, Mine Eyes Have
Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America (New
York Oxford University Press, 1993), 12-30.
Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Punethnicity: Bridging Institutions and lden-
tities (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992). Compare Espiritu,
who distinguishes between the institutionalization of the pan-ethnic con-
sciousness as a political resource and pan-ethnic consciousness in terms
of common culture, language, and religion with William Wei, The Asian
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
131
AMERASIA JOURNAL
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
American Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), who
does not make such a distinction, but instead speaks of the existence of
Asian American consciousness from the presence of the Asian American
movement.
Despite the profile of an African American member appearing in the
March-April (1994) issue of Hsi Lai News, African American members
remain very few at Hsi Lai.
May Lui, “Age-old Alms-Round Reenacted on Sangha Day,” Hsi Lai News,
September-October 1944, 1.
Hsing-yiin, The Buddha‘s Light lntwnational Association: Who Are We?, 7.
The three major forms of Buddhism are TheravZda (popular in South-
east Asia), Mahayana (dominant in China and Japan), and Vajrayka (no-
table in Tibet and Japan). Vajrayiina is often seen as simply a part of
MahZySna. Chinese Buddhist organizations are primarily Mahayma and
secondarily Vajrayana. See Albanese, 1992; Hsing-yun, The Buddha‘s
Light International Association: Who Are We?, 1994, 7; Our Report, 1995,41.
Hsi Lai’s activities present a very effective mobilization of laity and re-
sources. Because of the proliferation of construction projects activities,
and rituals sponsored by Hsi Lai Temple requiring massive capital and
manpower, the members who support Hsi Lai are generally from the
middle or upper middle class, with a significant number from the upper
class. These members have the financial or time resources to contribute
to or participate in the frequent and diverse Hsi Lai events. Hsi Lai Temple
recently added an Eighteen Arhats (Buddhist saints) garden and a Kuan-
shih-yin (he who observes the sounds of the world, the Bodhisattva of
compassion) garden; members and potential members are given the option
of participating in rituals by mailing in a donation in order for their
names to be read during the ritual ceremonies. In this way, those who
cannot come to the temple can equally receive blessings; According to
the Abess, Ven. I-kung, although construction of Hsi Lai was financed
primarily by donations from Taiwanese supporters, current operating
expenses of the Temple are covered by donations from U.S. supporters.
“Primary socialization is the first socialization an individual undergoes
in childhood, through which he becomes a member of society.” Peter Berger
and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the
Sociology of Knowledge (New York Anchor Books, 1966), 130; “Secondary
Socialization is any subsequent process that inducts an already social-
ized individual into new sectors of the objective world of his society,“
ibid.
132
Religious Racialization
Legacies of Discrimination
American Progress
American Exceptionalism
Occident Orient
Christian Supremacy non-Christian
White Supremacy Asian
American Exceptionalism + Manifest Destiny Threat to White-Christian purity
Legacies of Discrimination
• Racial hierarchy
• Orientalism
• Christian supremacy + White supremacy
- Religious Racialization�Legacies of Discrimination
American Progress
American Exceptionalism
- Slide Number 4
Legacies of Discrimination
- Slide Number 6
- Slide Number 7
AMERASIA JOURNAL 22:l (1996):107-
132
Journey to the
Chinese Buddhism
Far West:
n America
I R E N E LIN
Chinese Buddhism in America
A number of interesting studies have appeared on Chinese religions
in America. However, the direct application of current Western reli-
gious studies classification schemes and labels to the study of Chinese
religions and practices in the United States is problematic. Situating
new and unfamiliar religious groups solely within the available cat-
egorical schemes predisposes a ”colored” understanding of the new.
For example, Stark and Bainbridge’s elaboration on the church, sect,
and cult typology, based on a continuum of tension that exists be-
tween religious groups and the socio-cultural environment, requires a
Christian understanding of religious organizational splintering and
formation.’
In contemporary Chinese religious culture, however, there is no
centralized ecclesiastical authority to establish orthodoxy or orthopr-
my, or “hierarchical” organizational structures equivalent to the Western
typology of church, sect, and cult.’ Religious authority and acceptance in
the society are often gained through the spiritual attainment of the group
founder as manifested by supernatural powers of blessings, healing, or
averting calamities affecting potential members. Furthermore, the offer-
ing of social services or conversion of believers through the founder’s
charisma adds legitimacy. Chinese culture does not view religious
traditions and groups as mutually exclusive. A person can belong to
different religious organizations simultaneously and appeal to one or
another or even many. Religious authority is diffused among a great
number of decentralized and varied independent religious groups-
some small, some large.
IRENE LIN is a doctoral student in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford
University and interested in Chinese, Japanese and Asian American religions.
107
AMERASIA JOURNAL
Given the classification issues, the existing scholarship on Chi-
nese religions and their establishments can be roughly grouped into
three types. The first covers research on indigenous Chinese religions
which were transplanted to the United States by the earliest Chinese
immigrants between 1854-1883 and the Chinese temples of Northern
California built by these immigrants. The second focuses on Chinese
Buddhism in the larger context of Buddhist traditions in America.
The third includes short descriptions of selected Chinese Buddhist or-
ganizations in America, primarily found in encyclopedias of Ameri-
can religion^.^
The study of Buddhism in the United States is largely based on
European American experiences and encounters with Buddhism This
literature has been dominated by studies on Zen, Tibetan Buddhism,
Theravada traditions, and the Japanese “new religion,” Soka-gakkai/
Nichiren Shoshu (the soka gakkai separated from Nichiren Shoshu
Priesthood in 1991). This selective emphasis reflects Buddhist tradi-
tions that have attracted European American interest and f~l lowing.~
As a prime example of this bias, Charles Prebish uses the term
“American Buddhism” to describe the struggle of a foreign religious
tradition to acculturate and accommodate to the American mindset.6
Despite his focus on the acculturation process of American Buddhism
over three time periods, Prebish neglects the Buddhism of Asian Ameri-
cans. To bring their experience into his framework, one would need
to develop new labels and expand the perimeter of the term ”accultura-
tion of Buddhism” to account for the Buddhist experiences of the Asian
Americans. Similarly, Emma McCloy Layman examines Buddhism in
America from the vantage point of European Americans. She states that
“Buddhism in America does not really have an American style, but ap-
pears as an Oriental anachronism in a Western society. Some of the val-
ues. . .are consonant with those of the Judeo-Christian tradition. . .[T]he
ideology and practices of Buddhism are in conflict with the dominant
values of our technological, materialistic, and secular ~oc ie ty .”~
The paucity of studies on Buddhism of Asian Americans also ex-
tends to the general ignorance about Chinese religions in America.
Chinese religions are no longer represented solely by ”joss houses,”
not merely characterized by ancestor worship in private homes, and
not adequately defined by the European American encounters with
them. Rather, the religious experience of Chinese Americans needs to
take into account the perspective of Chinese Americans themselves.
Recognizing such a need, this study begins the larger project by sup-
plying the institutional picture of specific communities of Chinese
Americans gathering for communal worship.
108
Journey to the Far West
From 1965 to 1990, the Chinese American population increased
about four-and-a-half times, primarily driven by immigration. The
heterogeneity characterizing the Chinese immigration since 1965,
mainly a result of the quota system under the 1965 amendments to the
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and subsequent series of
amendments to the 1952 Act,* resulted in a proliferation of Chinese
religious organizations in the United States. Post-1965 Chinese Bud-
dhist organizations, an important subset of Chinese American reli-
gious organizations, have not received adequate attention in Asian
American or religious studies literature^.^
This preliminary examination identifies and explains issues relevant
to the understanding of Chinese Buddhist organizations through a case
study of Hsi Lai ssu (Hsi Lai means “coming to the West,” which con-
notes “the Buddha Dharma coming West”’O and ssu means temple), other-
wise known as the International Buddhist Progress Society, a Chinese
Buddhist organization in Hacienda Heights, ten miles East of Monterey
Park, in Southern California.’l Hsi Lai originated as a Taiwan-based,
ethnic-Chinese Buddhist organization with a predominantly middle-
and upper-class membership. This study explores how Hsi Lai functions
to retrieve, preserve, and create a post-1965 Chinese American identity
while at the same time bridging the realities and multiple subject po-
sitions occupied by a large, heterogeneous Chinese American popula-
tion–e.g., race, ethnicity, nationality, class, gender and religion.12
The Hsi Lai Temple13
The Hsi Lai Temple in Southern California is the largest overseas branch
of the Fo Kuang Shan (”Buddha’s Light Mountain”) in Taiwan. Fo
Kuang Shan was founded in 1967 by Master Hsing-yiin, the forty-eighth
Patriarch of the Lin-chi School of Ch‘an Buddhism. Hsing-yun, born in
1926 in China, became a novice monk at the age of twelve, and was fully
ordained three years later. Subsequently, he attended the Ch‘i-hsia
Vinaya School and the Chiao-shan Buddhist College. The Master left
China for Taiwan in 1949 and is perceived to have personally revital-
ized Buddhism in Taiwan. Hsing-yun was the first monk in Taiwan to
utilize television and radio programs to propagate Buddhism, and to
use public forums to give large-scale public lectures on Buddhism.14
For Hsing-yun, the revitalization of Buddhism “lies in its people,
wealth, spirituality and undertaking.” His methods for pursuing such
an end are through ”humanization,” ”modernization,” and ”interna-
tionalization,” in the form of Buddhist cultural, educational, social,
and medical programs. Fo Kuang Shan has evolved into the largest
Buddhist center in Taiwan, with many branches throughout Taiwan
109
AMERASIA JOURNAL
and the world. In the U.S., aside from the Hsi Lai Temple, there are
many branch temples in cities including San Francisco, San Diego,
Austin, Dallas, Denver, and New York, along with numerous local
chapters throughout the country. Prior to the construction of the Hsi
Lai Temple, Fo Kuang Shan’s first temple in the United States was an
old church in Maywood, called the Pai-t’a ssu (White Pagoda Temple),
which became too small to accommodate the needs of its members.I5
Hsi Lai Temple was built in 1988 and occupies over twenty acres.
Construction costs exceeded thirty million dollars, financed by dona-
tions primarily from Taiwan. Substantial donations were also received
from donors in other countries including the U.S., Malaysia, and Hong
Kong. The completion of the temple was delayed for two-and-a-half
years because of opposition from the community, composed of many
conservative, affluent, and retired European Americans, who had a
wide range of concerns and fears.16
For example, the nearby residents claimed that the temple would
be “oversized for a neighborhood of single-family homes, that it would
jam surrounding streets with traffic and that it would be a jarringly
inappropriate cultural presence.” Other concerns resulted from the
community’s misunderstanding of Buddhism and Chinese culture,
including noise from chanting of sutras, gongs, and firecrackers; the
“adverse influence” on the youth resulting from the unfamiliar cloth-
ing of Buddhist monks and nuns; the unfounded fear of animal sacri-
fices on the temple site (and thus the fear for neighborhood dogs be-
cause ”the Chinese all eat dog meat”); and the worry that the children
might be entrapped by the new “religious cult.”17
Six public hearings and over one hundred meetings took place be-
fore the Hacienda Heights city council finally granted the permit for con-
struction of Hsi Lai Temple. Hsi Lai had to address and accommo-
date the concerns and objections of the residents such as changing the
color of the temple to a less conspicuous one; lowering the height of
its buildings; foregoing the installation of a eighty foot golden statue
of the Buddha near the front entrance of the temple; taking measures
to lessen the chances of fires from its use of incense; limiting its park-
ing space to prevent too many people from going to the temple at
once and causing traffic problems; and erecting a wall on a section of
the freeway to prevent potential traffic hazards posed by the view of
the temple. Despite such opposition from the community before the
construction period, on the opening ceremony day of the temple, con-
gratulatory letters from U.S. Congressman Matthew Martinez, Secre-
tary of State of California, March Fong Yu, other heads of states, and
prominent Buddhist leaders from thirty countries were received.
110
journey t o the Far West
Hsi Lai’s stated goal is threefold: to offer a spiritual and cultural
center for the United States, to provide Westerners a place for learning
about the Dharma, and to facilitate the exchange of culture between
East and West. When its policy requiring Hsi Lai members to con-
form to a unified standard of behavior set by Fo Kuang Shan is in con-
flict with its policy of blending Buddhism with the local culture, the
latter often takes precedence over the former.ls For example, all monks
and nuns at Hsi Lai wear amber-colored robes, whereas at Fo Kuang
Shan, such robes are reserved for those of higher ranks and lower-
ranked monks and nuns wear black robes. The reason for such a
change at Hsi Lai is that amber is more pleasing to the eye than black
for American visitors.
Organization
As an organization, Hsi Lai Temple consists of the temple, the Bud-
dhist Sangha (monastic order), and the Buddha Light International
Association (BLIA). The Hsi Lai temple provides not only a place of
worship but also a forum for lectures, discussions, classes, communal
rituals, and other Buddhist services and activities. Communal prac-
tices and other activities are conducted in Mandarin Chinese, with si-
multaneous English translation on most occasions, provided mainly
for one point five and second generation Chinese Americans. Further-
more, to accommodate the needs of its members, classes on Buddhism
are offered in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Religious activities
are offered on most weekday evenings and all day on weekends. Group
activities are created in accordance to the different groups’ varying
level of interest in and understanding of Buddhism.19
The massive physical structure of the temple includes the Bodhi-
sattva Hall, the Buddha Hall, V.I.P. suites, reception rooms, classrooms, a
gift shop, auditoriums, a museum, a memorial pagoda, a library, ad-
ministrative offices, and living quarters for the monks and nuns.22
The parking lot, which can accommodate two hundred cars, is often
insufficient to satisfy the parking needs during major holidays, such
as Chinese New Year’s eve and New Year’s day.
The temple is administered by monks and nuns hand-picked and
sent from Fo Kuang Shan. The number of monks and nuns that Fo
Kuang Shan deemed qualified to proselytize in the United States reached
fifty in 1988. After the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990, allow-
ing for religious workers to immigrate to the United States under the
fourth preference and to enter the United States as nonimmigrants
under R visas, the number of monks and nuns doubled. The organi-
zational hierarchy of Hsi Lai Temple is subsumed under that of Fo
111
AMERASIA JOURNAL
Kuang Shan. The Religious Affairs Committee is the leading govern-
ing unit of the main monastery, subsidiary and associate monasteries,
and all other organizations and units.21
The third leg of the religious organization is the lay Buddha’s Light
International Association, established by Fo Kuang Shan in fifty-one
countries, with members reaching one million, predominantly made
up of Chinese and overseas Chinese. The goal of BLIA is to ensure that
”Buddhism moves from the monastic to the laity, from temple to society,
from self-realization to helping others, from quietude to action, from
disciple to teacher, from Taiwan to the world.”22 BLIA allows the laity
to take an active role in the propagation of the Dharma and the shap-
ing of ”contemporary Buddhism”;23 BLIA sponsors and organizes all
activities on and outside temple premises that are not a part of the regu-
larly scheduled rituals, practices, and religious services of the temple.
BLIA claims to be the fourth largest social organization in the
world; it applied for membership to the UN as a non-governmental
organization in February 1994. In the United States, it consjsts of
twenty-two chapters, nineteen sub-chapters, and five organizing com-
munities. The establishment of a local chapter typically starts with a
Hsi Lai member inviting friends in her local community to her home
for an informal discussion of the Dharma. After several meetings, when
the number of people attending reaches one hundred, formal lectures
on the dharma are set up, and group practice such as Dharma discus-
sion, meditation, and liturgy take place at members’ houses on a ro-
tating schedule. With permission from Hsi Lai Temple, a local BLIA
is established, accompanied by election of local chapter officers and
solicitation of donations from group members. The local chapter then
organizes large-scale Buddhist activities in its community, such as in-
viting monks and nuns from Hsi Lai Temple to talk on the Dharma.
At the end of such talks, attendees can officially ”take the refuges”
and become lay disciples of Master Hsing-yiin through ordination
ceremonies. It is by becoming lay disciples of Master Hsing-yiin that
individuals become official members of the Hsi Lai Temple.25
Social Functions
In addition to being a religious organization, Hsi Lai Temple serves as
a Chinese community center, helping the Chinese immigrants cope
more effectively with American society. During the initial stages of
the establishment of Hsi Lai Temple, the Abbess in charge at the time,
Venerable Tzu-chuang, under the instruction of Master Hsing-yiin,
emphasized free practical services for the overseas Chinese commu-
nity.26 Services included locating relatives and friends, helping immi-
112
Journey to the Far West
grants find jobs by providing channels for networking, and organiz-
ing seminars to educate immigrants about American laws, customs,
the educational system and job market. Hsi Lai Temple has expanded
such services over time, in conjunction with its propagation of the
Dharma. Its services as an overseas Chinese center now include free
transportation to and from the airport, free meals, and a place to stay
for those in need of such assistance.
In order to preserve, strengthen, or at times create the Chinese
identity of its members, Hsi Lai Temple offers Mandarin, Taiwanese,
and Cantonese classes, mainly to one point five and second generation
Chinese Americans. In addition, special classes on Chinese culture are
offered, including Chinese art, folk dance, music, cooking, and T’ai-chi,
which help overseas Chinese to keep in touch with their ancestral roots.
The vice-president of the BLIA Los Angeles chapter, a Chinese Ameri-
can, has said, “BLIA has soothed the hardships of the loss of roots due to
living in a foreign country, developing the limitless treasures within
our hearts, uniting the hearts of all Chinese globally.” At present, the
members of Hsi Lai Temple are predominantly Chinese, with increas-
ing numbers of Buddhists of other races and nationality joiningz7
Due to the lack of diplomatic relations between Taiwan and the
United States, the de facto Taiwanese embassy, representing the gov-
ernment of Taiwan, is called the Coordination Council for North Ameri-
can Affairs (CCNAA). Hsi Lai Temple has offered its premises as the
reception hall for the CCNAA. The Temple has thus taken on some
functions of an embassy, becoming itself a de facto embassy. For ex-
ample, Hsi Lai has sought to help bridge the tensions between the
People’s Republic of China and Taiwan by hosting representatives of
both governments.28 It maintains good relations with political figures
both in the US. and abroad. American heads of state (for example, Vice
President Albert Gore) have visited Hsi Lai Temple, and Taiwanese
government officials have made the Temple a must stop upon their visit
to the West Coast.
The Temple also acts as a social relief center, providing aid to neigh-
boring communities, including donating money and books to local
schools, providing conference rooms free of charge for educational
and cultural group gatherings, and helping to preserve the environ-
ment and ecology through reforestation, recycling, and community
clean-up programs. BLIA sponsors soup kitchens for the homeless
and presents food baskets and gift certificates to low income families.
In addition, BLIA provides relief in times of natural disasters in the
Peoples’ Republic of China and the United States, and also sends aid
to Third World countries through local BLIA chapters.
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
Hsi Lai Temple opens its doors to visitors as a ”cultural center,”
fostering cross-cultural understanding. It regularly sponsors group
visits to the Temple; each month, groups totaling one to two thousand
people visit Hsi Lai, of which two-thirds are European American and
the remainder are mostly Chinese, with a few from other Asian coun-
tries. Individual visitors to the Temple are predominantly Chinese
Ameri~ans.2~ On the one hand, the Temple offers Chinese language
and cultural classes and sponsors Chinese cultural activities introducing
traditional and contemporary art forms to the community. On the other
hand, the Temple offers cross-cultural training programs such as Japa-
nese and Spanish language classes, Western dessert-making, social danc-
ing, and aerobics. In addition, Hsi Lai performs Buddhist religious and
cultural activities in the community at large. For example, Hsing-yiin
has performed a blessing service before the California State Senate.
To foster better understanding of American culture for Chinese
Americans, Hsi Lai Temple also offers activities celebrating American
holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving. Furthermore, to fa-
miliarize it members with non-Buddhist religious holidays and cel-
ebrations that occur each month, articles on various traditions are
regularly featured in the Temple’s newsletter, Hsi Lai News.
Hsi Lai Temple proclaims itself to be the ”home” for all its mem-
bers. The family atmosphere is created and sustained through numerous
services and activities. The Temple maintains a very large kitchen and
dining facilities, serving three buffet style vegetarian meals every day
to the clergy and laity. Most of the members who live nearby eat daily at
the temple. Furthermore, Hsi Lai provides living quarters in houses it
owns, adjacent to temple grounds, to those members who wish to stay
there as the need arises, especially those living far away from the
Temple?O
The emphasis is on individual Buddhist families coming “home”
for reunion with the large extended family. BLIA emphasizes that fami-
lies should spend more time together and accordingly sponsors regu-
lar activities which increase family involvement, such as parents-chil-
dren sports events, concerts, plays, and art shows. Moreover, to ac-
commodate the needs of two-income families, Hsi Lai Temple pro-
vides child and elderly care.
At the requests of parents, children’s classes are offered after
school and on weekends as a supplement to the regular schooling. In
the summer of 1994, Hsi Lai University opened on the premise of the
temple, with authorization from the California Superintendent of Public
Instruction, as a degree-granting school of theology. The university
offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Buddhist Studies. The con-
114
Journey to the Far West
struction of an East Coast campus on an already-purchased 470 acres in
New York State is being planned. Chinese parents who are concerned
with the liberal atmosphere of American universities can send their chil-
dren to receive higher education in a more conservative environment?*
Hsi Lai University tries to bridge the gap between Buddhist theol-
ogy and religious studies by having religious studies scholars on the
faculty. It also offers its ”state of the art” conference rooms and librar-
ies for use by religious studies scholars not affiliated with the univer-
~ i t y . ~ ~ Moreover, it sends qualified monks and nuns to pursue gradu-
ate degrees in religious studies at top-ranked universities.
BLIA sponsors adult and community education program by regu-
larly offering seminars and lectures to increase the lay understanding
of Buddhism. Moreover, BLIA provides lectures in local colleges, high
schools, city halls, stadiums, jails or senior centers. In addition to spon-
soring conferences, meetings, and exchange programs between Bud-
dhists of different traditions, BLIA also promotes dialogue and inter-
change between Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions. For instance,
Master Hsing-yiin has received visits from the Dalai Lama and ambassa-
dors from the Vatican.
In order to make the Buddhist teachings and Fo Kuang ideals eas-
ily accessible, Fo Kuang Shan operates its own publishing house and
audio-video production center, producing over four hundred Bud-
dhist publications, audio and video materials in Chinese, English, and
Korean, distributed in twenty countries. Upon the opening of Hsi Lai
University, Hsi Lai University Press was established in 1994, with the
initial agenda to publish Master Hsing-yun’s works in English.34
Periodicals are also published in Chinese and English by the dif-
ferent Fo Kuang organizations in order to update members on Fo Kuang
events and to propagate Buddhist teachings. These periodicals include
Awaken the World, Universal Gate, Hsi h i News, and Buddha’s Light Centu y.
Hsi Lai also uses other media to propagate its teachings to a broader au-
dience. For example, BLIA regularly sponsors programs on local ra-
dio stations and broadcasting networks and Hsi Lai Temple contrib-
utes Dharma talk-shows to a local Chinese television channel.
Analysis: Theoretical Suggestions
The Fo Kuang Hsi Lai Temple provides the context for overseas Chinese
to reinforce and reinvent Chinese identity through religion, ethnicity,
nationality, culture, family, and education. In response to a modern
industrial society characterized by pluralism, religion becomes sub-
ject to the forces of fashion, or what Peter Berger calls the dynamics of
”consumer preferen~e.”~~ Competing for the individual’s time and
115
AMERASIA JOURNAL
interest, Hsi Lai’s Buddhism has been ”designed, produced, and mar-
keted” with the needs of its members and potential members in mind.
At the current stage of Hsi Lai Temple’s development, its target is
mainly the overseas Chinese.
“Plausibility Super-structure”
In order for Hsi Lai Temple to maintain its meaning in a religiously
pluralistic and ethnically diverse society, a social base, or what Berger
calls a ”plausibility structure,” is necessary for its continuing exist-
e n ~ e . ~ ~ However, in most modern settings, for a religious group seek-
ing to maintain itself in pluralistic competition with other religious
groups, the social engineering problem is transformed from one of
enlisting the society as a whole for the purpose of social confirmation
into one of constructing and maintaining a subsociety that may serve
as the plausibility structure for the de-monopolized religious ~ystem.3~
Especially in the case of Hsi Lai, where Chinese Buddhists are
geographically separated by the Pacific from the main social group
that serves as its basis of plausibility, the significance of the plausibil-
ity structure becomes especially important. Because the world view
of the Chinese Buddhists is not shared by the American public at large,
Hsi Lai Temple needs to establish a subsocietal plausibility base to main-
tain their belief system. To avoid small subworlds of fragmented uni-
verses of meanings, Hsi Lai Temple has created a broad social base
which provides a more holistic universe of meaning. In its attempt to
provide an entire world view for the Chinese American Buddhists, it
has created a ”plausibility superstructure,” which incorporates numer-
ous substructures-namely a religious organization, an ethnic commu-
nity, a de facto embassy, a social relief center, a cultural center, and a
school. Through religion, these substructures serve diverse roles in creat-
ing and maintaining different aspects of the Chinese American identity.
For members, Hsi Lai Temple’s super social base for maintaining
and reinforcing its distinctive system of meaning, simultaneously en-
ables the fulfillment of religious, cultural, communitarian, national, fa-
milial, and educational needs. For non-member Chinese Americans,
the temple, religious rituals and practice, cultural events and activi-
ties, ethnic community, de facto embassy, and traditional and holiday
celebrations are available to each person for whatever purposes he or
she is seeking. The association through activities, in various forms,
creates opportunities for nonmembers to become socialized into the
Fo Kuang world view in varying degrees. This world view is de-
scribed in a booklet entitled “HOW to Be a Fo Kuang Buddhist,” re-
quiring members to place the monastery, the community, Buddhist
116
Journey to the Far West
undertakings, and Buddhism above the self.38 Hsi Lai Temple’s cre-
ative incorporation of numerous identities avoids compartmentaliza-
tion (separation of secular / sacred spheres) and solid boundaries in order
to accommodate the heterogeneous needs of the Chinese Americans.
At the lowest level of association are tourists, followed by those
who come to participate in cultural festivities or who come to take
advantage of the Temple’s cultural training courses, identifying with Hsi
Lai as an overseas Chinese community center. Then there are politi-
cians and celebrities who come to Hsi Lai Temple for social or politi-
cal reasons, identifying Hsi Lai as a large charitable organization or as
a de facto representative of the Taiwanese government. Alternatively
there are those who send their children to attend classes or the Uni-
versity, identifying Hsi Lai as a provider of education. There are Bud-
dhists who have not taken refuge under Master Hsing-yun, coming to
the temple only on important Buddhist holidays, who identify Hsi Lai
Temple solely as one religious organization among many.
Among those who have taken refuge and are disciples of Master
Hsing-yun, involvement and association with the temple also vary.
Some volunteer their services, some contribute money, and some partici-
pate in key rituals and services or some combination thereof. There are
some disciples that participate in all religious functions as individuals
and others who involve their entire family, participating in all activi-
ties and events, whether religious or not, truly identifying with Hsi
Lai as “home,” thus constituting the core members of the Temple.
Hsi Lai‘s Role in the “New Ethnicity“
There is no single Chinese identity in the United States or throughout
the world of the Chinese diaspora. Following the tendency of the
”Chinese people and Chinese culture which has been constantly amal-
gamating, restructuring, reinventing and reinterpreting themselves,”
overseas Chinese have been constructing their own cultural identities
in non-Chinese environment^.^^ The term, ”Chinese American,” is
both a political label and a symbolic identity label.40
The old concept of ethnicity based on the assumption of ”bio-cul-
tural-territorial isolate frame of reference” is no longer applicable to
the overseas Chinese in diaspora who have come to the United States
from different parts of the world.41 More applicable to these overseas
Chinese is the concept of “new ethnicity” as “an affective/symbolic
and behavioural strategy frame of reference, which is contingent upon
the larger social environmental context.”** “New ethnicity” represents
an attempt by members of ethnic minorities to balance the need for “a
sense of rootedness or belongingness” with the desires to ”alter the
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A M E R A S I A J O U R N A L
established distribution of power, privilege and prestige so as to gain
economic, political, and cultural rights / advantage^.”^^
Hsi Lai Temple provides the context for post-1965 Chinese Ameri-
cans to construct their identity, characterized by heterogeneity, hybrid-
ity, multiplicity, fluidity, and situation.44 This identity is made up of nu-
merous sub-identities including race, ethnicity, culture, nationality,
class, gender, and religion which may be selectively chosen and com-
bined or sometimes ascribed by the dominant community at large. Hsi
Lai serves as a multicultural resource for these Chinese Americans. It is
a cultural carrier in preserving traditional Chinese culture; a cultural
broker in bridging Chinese subculture and American culture; a cultural
entrepreneur in helping to define a new Chinese American identity.45
Through Hsi Lai’s offering of a wide-range of educational pro-
grams and activities, the content of Chinese and American identities
are being creatively selected and incorporated. Concurrently, while
Chinese identity can be affirmed, American identity can be strength-
ened. Thus identity becomes inclusive and not exclusive. Through cul-
tural training classes and activities-retrieving and recreating Chinese
national and traditional culture, in addition to introducing and par-
taking in non-Chinese cultures-Chinese Americans who participate
in them can identify with their nation and tradition while at the same
time becoming international and transcending the limits of such cul-
t ~ r e . ~ ~ An added layer of identity provided by Hsi Lai is that of Chi-
nese Buddhists, in particular, Fo Kuang Buddhists. The construction
of a new ethnicity that can be manipulated situationally, may adequately
reflect the lives of Chinese Americans, who can choose to be ethnically
visible or invisible depending on whether such identity is valued or
deemed beneficial. Whether Hsi Lai can or will be used as a means for
mobilizing its members to further the political, social or economic in-
terests of members remains a question for the future.47
Revitalization
Because religious systems may serve to compensate for loss of native
culture, immigrant communities often reinscribe aspects of older tra-
ditions in their new context. In the case of post-1965 Chinese Ameri-
cans with nostalgia for Chinese roots, Hsi Lai Temple provides an in-
stance of religion serving to revive and construct Chinese culture and
identity for the Chinese Americans, ensuring relevance to their differ-
ential situations. Furthermore, Hsi Lai furnishes an example of how
Buddhism has been revitalized to accommodate the needs of modern
industrial society and to adapt to the culturally pluralistic environ-
ment.48
118
Journey t o the Far West
Hsi Lai Temple strives to make Buddhism relevant to modern so-
ciety. It refashions and repackages tradition to fit the modern context
through its choice of organizational structure, design of activities for
members, potential members, and the community, and use of modern
mass media and technology. Traditional Buddhist ways are changed
by ”coming out of the forest and entering into society,” and serving the
community through ”involvement in families, nations, and the
Past ”distorted” images of Buddhism are transformed from “passivity
to activity,” from ”pessimism to optimism,” from ”aversion to the world
to engagement in the society and love of existence,” and from the prac-
tice of asceticism to practice in a quiet, wealthy and comfortable envi-
ronment .50
Hsi Lai’s emphasis on this-worldly orientation, as opposed to the
traditional other-worldly orientation, is manifested in its goal to cre-
ate a Buddhist Pure Land (or Buddhist ”paradise”) on earth here. Master
Hsing-yiin advocates the ideal of “placing wealth among the devo-
tees.” He sees to it that modern facilities are built so that Buddhist devo-
tees can practice in a surrounding replete with wealth and comfort. In
tangible ways, Fo Kuang Shan can be viewed as the Eastern Pure Land
and Hsi Lai Temple, the Western Pure Land-sacred, prosperous, and
serene. Through BLIA and its effective mass media, the local is tran-
scended, globalized and unified. In the Buddha’s Light newsletter, Fo
Kuang Shan is introduced as a Buddhist sacred place to which believ-
ers can make pilgrimages?’
Another illustration of Hsi Lai Temple’s this-worldly orientation
is its development of a Buddhism for daily life, represented by the
BLIA. By keeping old ways alive while teaching new ways, and pro-
viding a stable source of meaning and belonging, this ”megatemple”
serves as a sheltering canopy of legitimation €or the Chinese Ameri-
cans’ new identities by reference to their tradition.52 Traditional func-
tions of the temple, such as offering talks on the Dharma and provid-
ing a place for religious practice, are expanded to accommodate the
needs of the communities-for example in performing ceremonies for
anniversaries, birthdays, weddings, and commemorations.
Asian American Panethnicity and Asian American Panethnic
Buddhist Organization
For post-1965 Chinese immigrants who are multicultural, multilingual,
and from different socio-economic backgrounds, ”Asian American pan-
ethnicity” in terms of a consciousness of shared culture, language and
religion is still a foreign concept. Espiritu’s referent for ”Asian American
panethnicity” is based on the institutionalization of Asian American
119
AMERASIA JOURNAL
consciousness, reflecting an efficient mobilization of diverse people
based on shared political, social, and economic interests or experience on
a case-by-case ba~is.5~ For post-1965 Chinese immigrants, to the extent
that religion and culture are intertwined, the boundaries between differ-
ent Asian/Asian American cultures may not be as fluid and situational.
They do not share the same world view and experiences as American-
born or American-raised Asians. The impact of pan-Asian identity,
however, may increase with the immigrant children’s coming of age.
Hsi Lai Temple, with its predominance of post-1965 Chinese im-
migrants, has not yet moved towards becoming an Asian pan-ethnic
Buddhist organization. Aside from the overwhelming majority of mem-
bers of Chinese origin, currently there is a slow but steady increase of
European American members. Hsi Lai strongly encourages and sup-
ports the joining of European American members. For example, Hsi Lai
N m s regularly has articles featuring the profiles of new European Amer-
ican members.54 The implications of this phenomenon of merging the
boundaries between Chinese Americans and European Americans, but
not between Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans, in a reli-
gious community suggests more questions than this study can enter-
tain.
Hsi Lai is beginning to expand in the direction of reaching out to
other Asian American groups by participating in cross ethnic-Asian
Buddhist activities. On April 3,1994, for instance, Hsi Lai participated in
a Hanamatsuvi (flower festival) celebration sponsored by the Buddhist
Sangha Council of Southern California and the Japanese Buddhist Asso-
cia tion. Seven Buddhist organizations representing Chinese, Vietnamese,
Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, and Sri Lankan traditions came together to
participate in the celebration. In another instance, on August 21, 1994,
Hsi Lai invited monks from other Chinese, Sri Lankan, Thai, and Tibetan
temples and monasteries to parficipate in its Sangha (monastic order)
day.55 The joining zf different Asian Buddhist groups on different occa-
sions may represent a beginning of the joining of ethnic boundaries of
Buddhist groups. The next step for Hsi Lai istoward the expansion of
its membership to people of different Asian ethnic backgrounds. If
“Asian American panethnicity” consciousness is one characterized by
political identification for the purpose of effectively mobilizing diverse
people to further some common interests, an interesting topic for fur-
ther research is what role, if any, can religion play in providing a cul-
tural bond to fill in the content of “Asian American panethnic” con-
sciousness.
Hsi Lai is also attempting to expand the borders of its present sta-
tus as a Chinese Mahayana Buddhist organization to become a pan-
120
journey to the Far West
Buddhist organization. Master Hsing-yun states that “no distinction
will be made in regards to area, country and race”; thus BLIA will
preach Buddhism with a view of the whole world as one?6 Towards this
goal, for the inauguration of the BLIA International Headquarters and
the First General Membership Conference held at Hsi Lai Temple from
May 17 through 22,1992, Hsi Lai Temple invited over four thousand
delegates from all five continents, bringing together Buddhists from
Southern (Theravada) and Northern (Mahayana) traditions, as well as
the exoteric (“Sutric”) and esoteric (Tantric) schools. In addition, Hsi Lai
signed an agreement with the Abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya Temple
in Thailand, representing the Theravada tradition, for the purpose of
cooperating on projects and exchanging monastic and lay personnel.
BLIA chapters worldwide also regularly sponsor conferences and meet-
ings among Buddhists of different tradition^.^^
There seems to be gap between the ideal of Buddhism as a non-
ethnic, a social truth, especially as articulated by Master Hsing-yun, and
the reality of Hsi Lai being an Buddhist organization centered around
creating a form of Buddhism and Buddhist community relevant to the
needs of its predominantly Chinese American members. Despite the
Temple’s attempt to encourage European Americans to join the orga-
nization, they remain a novelty. While European American members
are introduced in the Hsi Lai News, new Chinese American members do
not receive such attention or coverage in its newsletters.
Conclusion
Much of the Hsi Lai Temple’s success can be attributed to its ability to
retain cultural continuity with Taiwan, while at the same time modi-
fying its social base in accommodation to American culture. By pro-
viding a wide range of frequent activities and a network of internal
connections, it effectively moves its members to a high level of com-
mitment and involvement?8 An additional factor in its success is its
ability to attract and maintain members of different ages and eco-
nomic backgrounds. Master Hsing-yun particularly stresses the im-
portance of making Buddhism attractive to youth. Hsi Lai also pro-
vides structures and activities for effective primary socialization into
its unique world view by reaching out to entire families with children,
not just individuals. Moreover, it facilitates secondary socialization
through its structure and programs.59 Finally by providing a commu-
nity accepted by the American public at large, and the world at large,
and a “‘home” to the Chinese American Buddhists through its plausi-
bility super-structure, it makes its members feel at ease with their
unique identity and world view, and at the same time makes it easier
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
for them to maintain and confirm the reality of their world.
This case study of Hsi Lai Temple provides one example of a di-
mension of Buddhism in America that has been largely overlooked
thus far-namely the Buddhism of Asian Americans. Even though
Buddhism represents both a religious and a cultural option for Euro-
pean Americans and Asian Americans, historically, their encounters
with and experiences of Buddhism have developed differently. Thus,
the unique experiences of Asian Americans with Buddhism need to
be examined from their perspective.
As illustrated by Hsi Lai, religion plays an important role in the
retrieving, preserving, reviving, and creating of cultural identities for
Chinese Americans, especially among recent immigrants. The construc-
tion of a “new ethnicity,” as a survival tactic, results from the Chinese
Americans’ attempt to preserve its tradition, while assimilating or ac-
commodating to the dominant culture. Therefore, the study of Asian
American religious organizations in general is at the intersection of
religious studies, comparative ethnic studies, and Asian American stud-
ies. Methodologies from these fields need to be employed jointly to
account for ethnic-Asian religious phenomena. However, rather than
adopting wholesale available methodologies and terminologies em-
ployed in the study of Judeo-Christian religions, we should employ new
methodologies and labels that are specific to non-European Ameri-
cans and non-Judeo-Christian phenomena.
Furthermore, the categories and labels used to study post-1965 Asian
American religious organizations will probably change with the fluid
development of these groups. Hsi Lai is (slowly) in the process of mov-
ing from a predominantly ethnic-Chinese Buddhist community to a
more “mixed Buddhist community,” attracting non-ethnic Chinese mem-
bers. To the extent the children of its Chinese immigrant members
come of age or “Asian-American panethnic” or “panethnic” members
become a reality, Hsi Lai may adapt its teachings, practices, and orga-
nization to accommodate the needs of these non-ethnic Chinese minori-
ties and/or Euro-Americans. How Hsi Lai chooses to balance the in-
terests of its ethnic-Chinese members and those of non-ethnic Chinese
members will play a significant role in determining its future.
An important area of research to pursue in the study of Chinese
religious groups in the United States is to ask if the phenomenon of
bridging traditional and modern aspects of religion and culture is oc-
curring in wider Buddhist and non-Buddhist contexts. Especially
promising is the comparative study of traditional Chinese religions in
Asia and Chinese American religions. The comparative study of Chi-
nese American religions and Japanese new religions, both in Japan
122
Journey to the Far West
and in the United States, would enable us to draw parallels and differ-
ences, continuities and discontinuities. Such a study can, of course, be
extended to ethnic minority religions in general and other ”non-main-
line” religions.
Notes
The author would like to thank Carl Bielefeldt, Rudy Busto, Bernard Faure,
John Kieschnic, and Venerable Yifa of Hsi Lai Temple for thier help and con-
structive criticism.
Whereas the ”church is defined as an established religious body in the
society, both sect and cult are ”deviant” religious bodies in increasing
relative tension with their surrounding socio-cultural context. A ”cult”
in this model is defined as a movement with no previous ties to another
established religious body, originating in the host society through inno-
vation, or imported from another society. Curiously, under this typol-
ogy, if members of an imported cult are primarily an immigrant ethnic
population, then the cult is regarded as an ethnic church. Rodney Stark
and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival,
and Cult Formation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 25,18
9.
The suitability of applying Western religious studies labels, such as ”cult,”
to Chinese religions also needs to be examined. Upon the transforma-
tion from a religious organization that is based on ethnic population to
one which seeks to recruit converts from the broader population in the
United States, Chinese religions, according to this scheme, leave the do-
main of ethnic religions and enter the field of ”alternative religions.” The
change may trigger the labeling of “new religious movements” as alter-
natives to mainline American religions, i.e., those that are “not norma-
tively Judeo-Christian.” Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Religious and Spiritual Groups in
Modern America (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1973), 2.
The term ”cult,” however, is inappropriate on at least three grounds. First,
given its pejorative connotation, it generates fear and suspicion on the
part of the public. Second, it is supposed to refer to ”new“ religious groups
in society, but transplanted Chinese religions are hardly new and may
belong to long-established traditions in their country of origin. Third,
”cult” is a catch-all term that does not allow for adequate distinction
among different types of ”non-mainline American religions.” Given the
problems in applying Western category schemes and labels, a more fit-
ting terminology is desirable for studying Chinese religions in the United
States.
For discussions on new religious movements, see David G. Bromley and
Phillip E. Harmnond, eds., The Future of New Religious Movements (Macon,
Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1987); Jacob Needleman and George
Baker, eds., Understanding the New Religions (New YorkCity: Seabury Press,
1978); Geoffery K. Nelson, Cults, New Religions 6 Religious Creativity (Lon-
don: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987). Charles S. Prebish in American Bud-
dhism (North Scituate, Masachusetts: Duxbury Press, 1979), 173-174, discusses
the interpretation of the term “new” in the phrase of “new religion” as
”new in the sense of group, which has arisen in America within the last
one hundred fifty years and are still extant” and as “unusual or exotic.”
1.
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
2. Other models have been applied to the Asian religions in the United States.
Peter W. Williams in America’s Religions: Traditions t? Cultures (New York
Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990), 417, uses the categories of eth-
nic religions, export religions, and cults or new religions to describe Asian
religions in the United States. Catherine L. Albanese in America: Religions
and Religion (Belmont, California: Wadsworth, Inc., 1992), 318, employs
the categories of ”church,” meditation, evangelical, and ethnic Buddhism
to characterize different Buddhist groups in the United States. Also see Jan
Nattier, ”Visible and Invisible: Jan Nattier on the Politics of Representation
in Buddhist America,” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review 5 (1995):42-49, who
posits the typology of elite, evangelical, and ethnic Buddhism. These
categories reflect similar biases of Western perspectives.
Indigenization is the process through which foreign-born religion changes
through contact with native religion and culture. See Kiyomi Morioka,
“Gairai shukyz no dochakuka o meguru gaineteki seiri [a conceptual exami-
nation of the indigenization of foreign-born religions],” Shicho 107 (1972):
52-57. Also see Carlyle C. Haaland, ”Shinto and Indigenous Chinese
Religion.“ Encyclopedia of American Religious Experience. C. H. Lippy and
P. W. Williams, eds., (New York Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988), 669-709.
Also, L. Eve Armentrout Ma, “Chinese Traditional Religion in North
America and Hawaii,” in Chinese America; History & Perspectives (San
Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America, 1988), 131-147, which
is primarily a study of the religious practice of traditional or popular
Chinese religion which combines Buddhism, Taoism, elements of Con-
fucianism, and local cults. Ma states that many recent immigrants still
practice this Chinese traditional religion. Also see Mariann Kaye Wells,
Chinese Temples in California (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1962), 108; Peter Harvey, A n Introduction to Buddhism:
Teachings, Histoy, and Pructices (Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press,
1990); Emma McCloy Layman, Buddhism in America (Chicago: Nelson-
Hall, 1976); Prebish, 1979; Charles s. Prebish, ”Buddhism,” Encyclopedia of
American Religious Experience, C. H. Lippy and P. W. Williams, eds., (New
York Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988); and Rick Fields, How the Swans Came
to fhe Lake: A Narrafizx Hisioy ofBuddhism in America (Boston: Shambhala,
1992). The only Chinese Buddhist organization presented is the Sino-
American Buddhist Association in Northern California (in 1984, the name
of the organization was changed to Dharma Realm Buddhist Association);
see Gordon Melton, The Encyclopedia of American Religions (Wilmington:
North Carolina, McGrath Publishing Company, 1978), 424-4
30.
See Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Fall 1994, special section on “Dharma,
Diversity and Race.” According to bell hooks, ”Waking up to Racism,” 42-
44, many Buddhists of color in the U.S. do not have visibility. Victor
Sogen Hori in “Sweet and Sour Buddhism,” 48-52, states that Westerners in
the US. have projected their cultural attitudes onto Buddhism. In “Con-
fessions of a White Buddhist,” 54-56, Rick Fields asserts that ,4merican
Buddhism is being defined by the Whites in their own image. Addie Foye,
“Buddhists in America: A Short, Biased View,” 57, comments on the di-
vision of Buddhism into Asian American Buddhism and European Ameri-
can Buddhism that leads to the invisibility of African American Buddhists.
3.
4.
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Journey to the Far West
5. For example, the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, formerly known
as the Sino-American Buddhist Association, is often portrayed as represen-
tative of the Chinese Buddhist organizations. Its association with Ch‘an/
Zen and its large European American following have attracted the at-
tention of scholars.
6. See Prebish, 1988.
7. Layman, 279.
8. Bill Ong Hing, Making and Remaking Asian America through Immigration
Policy, 2850-1990 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), 81. The 1965
amendments abolish the 1924 discriminatory national origins provision,
which was retained in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, fa-
voring immigrants of Western European origins. The subsequent series of
amendments of the 1952 Act in 1990, collectively referred to as the Im-
migration Act of 1990, provides for an overall increase in worldwide
immigration. The 1990 Act increases the allocation for both family-re-
lated and employee related immigration, and further creates a separate
basis by which “diversity” immigrants (nationals of countries previously
underrepresented since 1965 due to visa issuance), can enter the United
States. Amendments of the 1952 Act that are directed towards the increase
of Chinese immigrants entering the United States are as follows: The 1981
amendment creates a separate quota of 20,000 for Taiwan, which Taiwan
previously shared with China and Hong Kong. In 1987, the annual quota
for Hong Kong was increased from 600 to 5000, then to 10,000 from 1990
to 1993 and subsequently to 20,000. Furthermore, thousands of students
were admitted from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asian countries, and
the People’s Republic of China. See INA 5 201- 5 203; aside from the Clu-
nese immigrants from Chma, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, ethnic Chinese im-
migrants who entered the United States are composed of refugees from
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia who were admitted to the United States
since 1975 and the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asian and Latin Ameri-
can countries facing anti-Chinese discrimination and political unrest. This
latter group came to the United States for a more stable investment envi-
ronment and better educational opportunities for their children. L. Ling-
chi Wan& “Roots and the Changing Identity of the Chinese in the United
States,“ The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, Tu
Wei-ming, ed., (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 196. See INA 5
207. As an unintended consequence, however, the amendments to the
1952 Act serve to polarize the Chinese immigrants into two categories:
professionals and service-workers; Peter Kwong, in The New Chinatown
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1987), 22, names these two categories as “the
Uptown Chinese,” made up of the professionals who do not settle in
Chinatowns and “the Downtown Chinese,“ made up of manual and ser-
vice workers who tended to live in Chinatowns with their sponsoring rela-
tives of similar humble origin from rural areas of southern China. In
addition to the differences in the place of birth and socio-economic class,
the Chinese Americans differ in their native dialect and place of origin,
e.g., China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and Latin America, ac-
cording to Hing, 86-87.
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
One motivation for focusing on this subset is that Chinese American
Buddhists are characterized by the superposition of two culturally dif-
ferentiating factors: non-European heritage and non-Judeo-Christian
belief. The combination of these two factors engenders unique experi-
ences which warrant separate study and presents distinctive method-
ological challenges. Examples of Chinese Buddhist organizations that
have arisen since the late 1960s include Hsi Lai Temple, True Buddha
School, Dharma Realm Buddhist Association (previously known as the
Sino-American Buddhist Association), and Buddhist Tzu-Chi Associa-
tion of America.
Since Hsi Lai Temple uses the Wade-Giles systems, Chinese terms re-
lated to the Temple will be transliterated using the Wade-Gile,; ‘ s y stem
instead of Pinyin. See Heinrich Dumoulin’s Zen Buddhism: A tlistory-
India and China (New York Macmillan Publishig Company, 1988), for the
legend of Bodhidharma, the twenty-eighth Indian Patriarch and first Patri-
arch of Ch‘an in China. Bhodhidharma is said to have come to China
from the West (India), bringing the ”seal of the Buddha m i n d from the
motherland to China. Hsi Lai can be alternatively rad as ”coming from
the West,” depicting the Dharma having come from the West and now
returning to the West.
See Timothy Fong’s The First Suburban Chinatown: The Remaking of Monterey
Park, California (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994). The subject
of the paper, religious organizations, should be distinguished from re-
ligious consciousness. As used here, a religious organization is a commu-
nity gathered for common worship and furtherance of a religious belief.
Religious consciousness, on the other hand, is an awareness of or inter-
est in a religious belief, with differing intensity, which may entail pri-
vate or common worship. Thus private forms of worship are not within
the scope of this study. Much of Chinese traditional religion in the United
States represents what Carlyle Haaland calls an ”invisible institution,”
whose rituals are conducted in private. Also see Williams, America’s Reli-
gions, 419.
A basic assumption here is that religion can help to construct Chinese
American identity by maintaining and constructing Chinese culture at
the periphery. This notion of periphery is twofold: geographically, Chi-
nese culture is being constructed in the United States, far from China.
Culturally, it is being constructed by Chinese Americans, away from the
”American mainstream.” See Tu Wei-ming’s discussion, ’Cultural China,”
1-34, of “cultural China” being shaped by the periphery instead of the
center by the Chinese in diaspora.
The main sources for this case study include books, newsletters, jour-
nals, booklets, and flyers published by Hsi Lai Temple, a related orga-
nization or by an unrelated third party commissioned by Hsi Lai. Most
of the information regarding the detailed operation of the temple, its
founder, and its history is published in Chinese, whereas information
on its activities and objectives is available in both Chinese and English.
This study also relies on personal observations of the rituals and activi-
ties, in addition to conversations with members of the monastic order and
laity at Hsi Lai. Most of the members of the order at Hsi Lai have a good
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Journey to the Far West
command of at least two languages in any of the following combination:
Mandarin, Taiwanese, English, and Japanese. Many of the monks /nuns in
higher administrative ranks studied at graduate schools primarily in
Japan and secondarily in the U.S.
Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing (Hacienda Heights, California: Hsi Lai Univer-
sity Press, 1994).
Hsing-yun wrote articles which called for reform of the practice of Bud-
dhism, spoke out against governmental interference in religion, and
suggested the establishment of laws assuring equal treatment of all re-
ligions in Taiwan. Hsing-yiin, (Perfectly Willing), 5; and Hsing-yun (Per-
fectly Willing), 134-135. In the Chinese version of the text, the two terms
of jen-chien (translated as “humanitarian” Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 76
or ”humanistic” Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 4) and skeng-huo (daily life)
is subsumed in the English translation into ”humanization.” In this context
I think Hsing-yiin is trying to convey that Buddhism is being made rel-
evant to daily life, or socially engaged; see Hsing-yun, How to Be a Fo Kuang
Buddhist (Hacienda Heights, California: International Buddhist Progress sod-
ety, 1987); Fo Kuang Shan has branches in the United States, Canada, Ar-
gentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Costa Rica, Japan, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia,
the Philippines, Australia, England, Switzerland, Germany, France, and
Russia; Fu Chi-ying (Ckuan deng: Hsing-yiin fa shik ckuan [handing down
the light: The Biography of Venerable Master Hsing-yiin] Taipei, Taiwan:
Commonwealth Publishing Company, 1995), 2
54.
Hsing-yiin brought back five blocks of bricks from India, holy sand from
the Ganges, and mud from Fo Kuang Shan, which were all deposited into
the foundation of Hsi Lai Temple-illustrating that “although the source of
the pulse of Dharma is far, the flow of the Dharma reaches far,” Fu, 2
52.
In November 1988, Life magazine published a picture of Hsi Lai naming
it the largest temple in the Western hemisphere. In the following year,
Reader‘s Digest also had an article on Hsi Lai. Ibid. Los Angeles Times,
January 10,1988.
Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1988; Fu, 1995,254.
Zbid., 252; see Hsing-yun, (1987); Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing, 4.
Communal practices and activities include talks, classes, meditation re-
treats, short-term monastic retreats, Five precepts retreats and Amitabha
Buddha Seven-day chanting retreats. The short-term monastic retreat
provides the participants with first-hand experience of monastic life for
five days. The five precepts are not to kill, not to steal, not to lie, not to
engage in improper sexual conduct, and not to use intoxicants. Aside from
the general activities open to all, there are special activities for the Fo Kuang
Women and Fo Kuang Youth associations. Hsi Lai Temple also regularly
offers separate Buddhist camps and retreats to accommodate the differ-
ent needs of its members: college students, children, teenagers, retired
people, teachers, and mothers / housewives.
The Bodhisattva Hall houses images of Samantabhadra (representing great
practice), Ksitigarbha (representing benevolence), Maitreya (the Future
Buddha). Avalokite’svara (representing great compassion), and MaiijugA
(representing great wisdom); The Buddha Hall has images of Bhai?ajyaguru
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
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AMERASIA JOURNAL
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
(Medicine Buddha), Sakyamuni Buddha (the historical Buddha), and
Amitabha Buddha( Buddha of eternal light).
The average age of the monks/nuns is thirty years old. The nuns out-
number the monks at Hsi Lai; Our Report, 1995, 44. The Religious Af-
fairs Committee, made up of thirteen members and seven alternates, elected by
secret ballots, serves a term of six years. The Abbot of Fo Kuang Shan, elected
by the committee members, acts as the chairperson of the committee and
spends a maximum of two terms in office. The Religious Affairs Commit-
tee consists of Veterans Council, Domestic Supervisory Council, Inter-
national Supervisory Council, Education Council, Culture Council, Fo
Kuang Shan Culture and Educational Foundation, Fo Kuang Pure Land
Cultural and Educational Foundation, University Education Organizing
Committee, Buddha’s Light International Association Development
Committee, International Buddhist Progress Society, Religious Affairs
Advancement Committee, and Cultivation Center. Our Report, 1995,43-
44.
Fu, 275,270. Master Hsing-yiin has retired from the position of abbot of
Fo Kuang Shan and has become actively involved with the BLIA; BLIA
claims that the benefits of joining its organization include meeting fel-
low members and having many friends, increasing wisdom in home
fellowship meetings, skill training programs, assistance in job hunting,
increasing business contacts, getting personal advice, participating in
Buddhist study clubs, being hosted by fellow members while traveling
around the world, assistance in funeral, marriage, and other events, and
”sanctifying the spirit” by participating in countless activities. Hsing-yun,
The Buddha’s Light lntmatiunal Association: who Are We? (Hacienda Heights,
California: BLIA Headquarters, 1994):5.
The Buddha’s Light International Association, 1995.
According to BLIA, the other three largest social organizations are the
Rotary Club, the Lion’s Club, and the United Way. Fu, 279. On the inau-
guration day of the BLIA International Headquarters and the First General
Membership Conference at Hsi Lai Temple, Former President of the United
States, George Bush and President of Taiwan, Li Teng-huei sent letters
of congratulations.
Hsing-yiin, The Buddha‘s Light International Association: w h o Are We?
(1994):20. These figures are as of January 1994; The information on how
to set up a BLIA chapter is from the Fo Kuang Shih Chi [Buddha’s Light
Newsletter], February 1,1993. Prominent members of the Chinese commu-
nity are asked upon their visit to the temple to initiate setting up a BLIA
chapter in her community and to become the head of the local chapter; af-
ter taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha (Buddhist
monastic order), the participants become newly initiated Buddhists.
The Fo Kuang Skan, 39.
Hsing-yun, 1994,13; Fu, 1995,274,275. According to the Hsi Lai News,
during the January, 1994, Precept Retreat, of the four hundred devotees
that came from different parts of the country and Canada, seventy-five
were “Western Buddhists.” O.B.M., 1994.
Fu, 2
53.
128
Journey to the Far West
29. The figures for individual visitors to the temple were not available at
the time of the study; group visitors include Buddhist and non-Buddhist
religious groups, politicians, students, and military personnel.
Only lunch is open to visitors of the temple, however a donation of five
dollars is required; occasions for staying in the houses owned by Hsi Lai
include late evening ceremonial rituals, week-long retreats or celebrations
of Buddhas‘ or Bodhisattvas’ birthdays or enlightenment days.
Some of these events include performances by the different Hsi Lai or-
ganizations, such as Hsi Lai Women’s Association, Hsi Lai Youth Asso-
ciation, and Buddha‘s Light Symphony Orchestra, and Buddha‘s Light
choirs; to accommodate the concerns of many parents that “the modern
world presents children with a precarious environment for growing up,”
BLIA regularly sponsors a ”safe, fun, and productive environment” in
which children and youth can enjoy themselves while learning new skills
and meeting new friends. During summer and winter vacations, BLIA
sponsors retreat camps. During the course of the year, BLIA provides com-
petitions in music, art, public speaking, and writing. In addition, BLIA
youth groups visit sister youth groups in other communities, providing
a chance for participants to learn new cultures and customs, and make
new friends.
Fo Kuang Shan, Our Report, 1995,26; In Taiwan, Fo Kuang Shan oper-
ates successful pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, junior high, high
schools, college, and graduate programs on its premises. Its reputation
for turning out well-disciplined and well-educated students in Taiwan
led Chinese parents in the U.S. to ask that Hsi Lai Temple provide a simi-
lar educational environment in the U.S. The opening of Hsi Lai Univer-
sity is a step towards accommodating this request.
Hsi Lai has sponsored domestic and international academic conferences
such as International Buddhist Conference, the World Sutric and Tantric
Buddhist Conference, the International Buddhist Academic Conference,
and the Buddhist Youth Academic Conference. Hsing-yiin, 11.
The Fo Kuang publications include Buddhist sutras, commentaries, his-
tories, philosophy, liturgical texts, reference materials, and a collection
of Master Hsin-yun’s lectures and writings. Reference materials include
the Fo Kuang Tripitaka, a four-volume Fo Kuang Dictionary of Buddhist
terms and a table of important dates and events in Buddhist history. At
present, Hsi Lai is creating a CD-ROM version of the Buddhist Tripitaka;
Audio and video tapes featuring sermons, sutras, publications, songs, mu-
sic, and televised programs are available in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Can-
tonese, Hakka, and English. In 1995, over 250,000 audio and 35,000 video
tapes are in circulation. Fo Kuang Shan, Our Report, 1995,8; Hsing-yiin,
The Buddha’s International Association: Who Are We?, 1994.
The concept of religion as a consumer product and thus subject to con-
sumer preference is in Peter Berger, The Heretical Imperative: Contempo-
my Possibilities ofReligious Afirmation (New York Harper and Row, 1982.)
For comparative studies, see Sara Bershtel and Allen Graubard, Saving
Remnants: Feeling Jewish in America (New York The Free Press, 1992) for
a discussion for how synagogues in the United States appeal to the cur-
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
129
AMERASIA JOURNAL
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
130
rent social and cultural tastes of their clientele and more generally how
Jewish Americans are choosing their identities, freely creating and in-
corporating pieces of tradition, including varying degrees and elements
of religious and ethnic identities.
See Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Reli-
gion (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 45. Peter Berger asserts that worlds
are socially constructed and socially maintained. Thus, a religion or mean-
ing system requires a plausibility structure within which the reality, as
defined by the religious tradition is taken for granted and within which
successive generations of individuals are socialized in a way that the world,
as defined by the religious tradition, will be real to them. Ibid., 46.
Ibid., 49. Compare to religious monopolies of the past, ”[wlhen an en-
tire society served as the plausibility structure for a religiously legiti-
mated world, all important social processes within it served to confirm
and reconfirm the reality of this world.” Ibid.,
48.
Hsing-yiin, 1987.
David Yen-ho Wu, ”The Construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese Identi-
ties,” in The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, Tu
Wei-ming, ed., (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 151. Also see
Tu, 4 for a similar statement.
”The term ”Asian American” was adopted in order to allow a presumed
ethnicity to achieve political identity and group solidarity.” Paul Wong,
“The Emergence of Asian American Movement,” Bridge 2 (1972):32-39.
Evelyn Kallen, The Western Samoan Kinship Bridge: A Study in Migration,
Social Change and Nau Ethnicity (Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1982),
30. The concept of old ethnicity refers to “any arbitrary classification of
human populations utilizing the bio-cultural criterion of (actual or as-
sumed) common ancestry in conjunction with the geo-cultural criterion
of (common) ancestral territory and socio-cultural criterion of (common)
ancestral heritage (culture and social institutions).” Ibid., 29.
Ibid., 30.
ibid. The concept of new ethnicity has developed “as a symbolic system
which can be manipulated situationally so as to enable individuals and/or
groups to maintain and revitalize their sense of ethnic belonging (roots)
in context where this is valued and deemed advantageous, and to remain
ethnically invisible when other interests and identities (occupation, po-
litical affiliation and so forth) come to the fore.” Ibid., 31.
See Lisa Lowe, “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian
American Difference,” Diaspora 1 (1991) reference for the application of
the concepts of heterogeneity, hybridity, and multiplicity to the character-
ization of Asian American culture.
See Bernard Wong, “Elites and Ethnic Boundary Maintenance: A Study
of the Roles of Elites in Chinatown, New York City” Urban Anthropology
6:l (1977):l-22, for a discussion of these concepts.
Shigeo H. Kanda argues in ”Recovering Cultural Symbols: A Case for Bud-
dhism in the Japanese American Communities,” Journal of the American
Journey t o the Far West
Academy of Religion 14 (4 supplement) 1978 : 445-475, that religious institu-
tions, (especially Shinshu Buddhism [Buddhist Churches of America]) play
a key role in sustaining, interpreting, and transmitting cultural symbols
and values. He argues that Buddhism, more than Christianity, is an impor-
tant receptacle for Japanese American tradition because of its bicultural
and ethnic characters. Kanda calls for the need to recover cultural symbols
and sees Buddhist symbols as capable of grafting on meanings from
other sources of cultural traditions. In contrast to Kanda’s view, the con-
cept of “new ethnicity” involves constructing cultural identities, beyond
just recovering cultural symbols and grafting meanings onto existing
symbols. It also entails creating new cultural and/or religious symbols
to reflect the heterogeneous needs of ethnic minorities in a new social con-
text.
For comparative studies, see Albanese, 43-47, for a discussion of how the
traditional Native American religions have served as vehicles for main-
taining Native American identity and encouraging political action.
For comparative studies see Robert N. Bellah, “Epilogue,” Religion and
Progress in Modern Asia (New York Free Press, 1965), 1W229. Bellah argues
that Japan faces four prospects of modernization, conversion to Christian-
ity, reformism, pure traditionalism, and neo-traditionalism. See Charles H.
Hambrick’s analysis, “Tradition and Modernity in the New Religious
Movments of Japan,” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1:2-3 (1974), 217-
253, of tradition and modernity in new Japanese religious movements
where he argues that they adapt a traditional myth-symbol system to a
modern situation, assuming the role of folk “neo-traditionalism.”
Hsing-yiin, Perfectly Willing, 3. The forest refers to the old Buddhist ideal of
the wandering renunciate of the forests vs. a newer ideal of settled
monastics in the villages. See Reginald A. Ray, Buddhist Saints in India
in India: A Study of Buddhist Values and Orientations (Oxford: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1994).
Hsing-yiin, The Buddha’a Light International Association: Who Are We?, 3;
Hsing-yun, Perfectly Willing, 132-136.
Yung Kai, ed., “Buddhist Sacred Places of the World (3),” Buddhist’s Light
Newsletter (October 1992) 1:6.
This characterization of Fo Kuang Shan as a sacred place can be extended
to Hsi Lai due to its claim to be a Pure Land on Earth and a site housing
a bone relic of the historical Sakyamuni Buddha.
Compare Hsi Lai as a “megatemple ” to Calvary Chapel, an Evangelical
“megachurch in Santa Ana, California, that also provides a broad net-
work and activities for its members. See Randall Balmer, Mine Eyes Have
Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America (New
York Oxford University Press, 1993), 12-30.
Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Punethnicity: Bridging Institutions and lden-
tities (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992). Compare Espiritu,
who distinguishes between the institutionalization of the pan-ethnic con-
sciousness as a political resource and pan-ethnic consciousness in terms
of common culture, language, and religion with William Wei, The Asian
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
131
AMERASIA JOURNAL
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
American Movement (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), who
does not make such a distinction, but instead speaks of the existence of
Asian American consciousness from the presence of the Asian American
movement.
Despite the profile of an African American member appearing in the
March-April (1994) issue of Hsi Lai News, African American members
remain very few at Hsi Lai.
May Lui, “Age-old Alms-Round Reenacted on Sangha Day,” Hsi Lai News,
September-October 1944, 1.
Hsing-yiin, The Buddha‘s Light lntwnational Association: Who Are We?, 7.
The three major forms of Buddhism are TheravZda (popular in South-
east Asia), Mahayana (dominant in China and Japan), and Vajrayka (no-
table in Tibet and Japan). Vajrayiina is often seen as simply a part of
MahZySna. Chinese Buddhist organizations are primarily Mahayma and
secondarily Vajrayana. See Albanese, 1992; Hsing-yun, The Buddha‘s
Light International Association: Who Are We?, 1994, 7; Our Report, 1995,41.
Hsi Lai’s activities present a very effective mobilization of laity and re-
sources. Because of the proliferation of construction projects activities,
and rituals sponsored by Hsi Lai Temple requiring massive capital and
manpower, the members who support Hsi Lai are generally from the
middle or upper middle class, with a significant number from the upper
class. These members have the financial or time resources to contribute
to or participate in the frequent and diverse Hsi Lai events. Hsi Lai Temple
recently added an Eighteen Arhats (Buddhist saints) garden and a Kuan-
shih-yin (he who observes the sounds of the world, the Bodhisattva of
compassion) garden; members and potential members are given the option
of participating in rituals by mailing in a donation in order for their
names to be read during the ritual ceremonies. In this way, those who
cannot come to the temple can equally receive blessings; According to
the Abess, Ven. I-kung, although construction of Hsi Lai was financed
primarily by donations from Taiwanese supporters, current operating
expenses of the Temple are covered by donations from U.S. supporters.
“Primary socialization is the first socialization an individual undergoes
in childhood, through which he becomes a member of society.” Peter Berger
and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the
Sociology of Knowledge (New York Anchor Books, 1966), 130; “Secondary
Socialization is any subsequent process that inducts an already social-
ized individual into new sectors of the objective world of his society,“
ibid.
132
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 244.
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Copyright © 2010. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 245.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 246.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 247.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 248.
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Copyright © 2010. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 249.
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Martin, Susan F.. Nation of Immigrants.
Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press, 2010. p 250.
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Copyright © 2010. Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S.
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