Foguangshan Master Hsing Yun is well-known to be a strong supporter of unification, despite the aversion of many Buddhists to mixing politics with religion. Now it seems that Master Hsing has more actively taken on China’s cause, declaring that there are no Taiwanese in Taiwan!
Kuo Kuan-ying may be a bigot, but even he seems to be able to detect the presence of Taiwanese. It seems Master Hsing can’t. As it is true that our eyesight tends to fail as we age, and that Master Hsing is not a young man, perhaps we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was referring to what he sees (or doesn’t see) physically with his own eyes. Maybe he just can’t “see” them.
He’s also supporting the right of the Chinese authorities to decide on who the next Lama will be when the old one dies, which seems pretty heretical to me.
[quote=“taihan”]Foguangshan Master Hsing Yun is well-known to be a strong supporter of unification, despite the aversion of many Buddhists to mixing politics with religion. Now it seems that Master Hsing has more actively taken on China’s cause, declaring that there are no Taiwanese in Taiwan!
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Well I don’t agree with the Master than “there are no Taiwanese in Taiwan”. But the “mixing politics and religion” complaint would only be valid if applied to all sides. Do you object to the Dalai Lama “mixing politics and religion”?
Note: I did not say that I objected or that I even thought it was possible to avoid mixing politics with religion. I said that many Buddhists object to mixing politics with religion. And if you read the article in question, the objecting voices were complaining that it seemed the organisers of the religious conference were going out of their way to use the conference to promote a political message.
He’s probably kissing CCP ass so he can expand his operation in the PRC. I never liked that guy. When I visited Fo Guang Shan in Gaoxiong county, there were so many pictures of him everywhere that I got the impression he was trying to pass himself off as a Buddha. Matreiya, in his case, only with shirt on and sly eyes. Another egomaniac!
Lot’s of WSR hate in this thread. OMG, a WSR individual that exercise his freedom of speech to express his political views on the Strait Issue, must mean something sinister is going on.
If Hoklo in Taiwan aren’t Hua ren or Han, what are they? Green card holders?
I mean the Pope wants to dictate other people sex lives about birth control, this WSR just said something to the effect that people on both sides of the Strait have some common ground, so the green bridgade has to hate on him… :loco:
I saw him on TV, another old guy who gets nostalgic about his childhood. Old people are easily taken advantage of, especially those with delusions of grandeur. He said the Taiwanese are all Chinese, well obviously a lot of Taiwanese would not agree…and he is not representing all buddhists from Taiwan’s views let alone Taiwanese views.
Seemingly now he is back in Taiwan saying we are all ‘citizens of the world’.
Sort of reminds me of that older ROC stateman, Lee Tung Hui. In his old age, he said he was Japanese. Ah, the joys of taking advantage of “respect one elders” society.
I’d amend that to read, “Probably just another self-serving crook. Many leaders are.” [/quote]
Religion seems to attract more than its fair share of these, IMHO, perhaps because some of these religions tend to attract the particularly vulnerable and those with inadequate skepticism, which makes them easy prey for crooks – moreso than, say, in politics (where the problem also exists). But you’re right, of course. The comment would apply more broadly as well. And of course the opposite is true, too – many religious leaders are shining examples of virtue. Anyway I don’t really know this Hsing Yun bloke so I’ll shut up now.
I mean the Pope wants to dictate other people sex lives about birth control, [/quote]
Good logic AC. If some white people can be stupid, how dare other white people say that some Chinese people are stupid? That’s like saying, because some men are stupid, no man should ever say that any woman is stupid.
[quote=“ac_dropout”] this WSR just said something to the effect that people on both sides of the Strait have some common ground, so the green bridgade has to hate on him… :loco:[/quote]
This is not what he said AC. He did not say they had some common ground. He basically said there was no such thing as a separate Taiwanese identity. That’s offensive to the average Taiwanese.
I’m just commenting on how religious leaders feel they are entitled to dictate to people how to live. In a secular society with free speech we are empowered to listen to them or not.
He did not. You intrepret what he said as such (or more accurately you believe what some English speaking DPP supporter told you.) He made no mention of any of the DPP favorite pet projects of “Taiwan Identity”, “Neo Nativism” or “Old Nativism.”
Even if I accept your interpretation as correct. It would mean the premise of “Taiwan Independence” and “Taiwan identity” are intertwine. So the political code of Tawain Independence and Taiwan Identity are one in the same. In other words, Taiwan Identity can only exist if and only if there are competing indentities in Taiwan.
Thus, the real danger of Taiwan Independence, how many successful States are founded on the purity of an ethnic group? The Nazi were an utter failure, I don’t expect the DPP to get very far with this platform. And I find White Taiwanese that would support such a racial political aggenda to be quite misguided in Taiwan.
There are 3 major thoughts of Buddism in Taiwan, and quite a few different “tribal” indentities in Taiwan as well. I’m sure they can all co-exist peacefully on the small island with a little bit of tolerance.
Supporting people that don’t tolerate WSR, or WSR with different opinions on the Strait Issue, doesn’t make the DPP or TI more appealing to the general public in Taiwan.
But even they tolerate diversity. Some call themselves Tang, some call themselves Han, and some call themselves Hua.
Even in the PRC they are accepting of the 55 other groups other than Han.
The TI people with their Nativism were never accepting of anyone other than a BSR that spoke Minnan.
I can name 5 high ranking BSR in the KMT, that can spout unification nonsense. However, I cannot find 5 high ranking WSR in the DPP that can spout independence nonsense.
I think that is very telling of what kind of society each party is working towards in Taiwan, in terms of ethnic inclusion, outside of the idealogical nonsense the respective parties have.
So this WSR uses the freedom of religion and freedom of speech to say something unappealing to TI supporters. But instead of hating on the guy, trying to dictate what he should and should not do, perhaps some tolerance is needed.
I think this will clarify the point he was trying to make.
“If all Hoklo in Taiwan are Han, then which Hoklo is not a Han?”
Sure TI supporters like to claim that Hoklo in Taiwan are much different than the Hoklo on the mainland, thus implying the Hans in Taiwan are much different than those on the mainland. But that is not the case for those of us that travel frequently between the two. Just like distinquishing between Americans in California and Americans in Hawaii.
English is such a cumbersome language…
Not to mention Religious leaders need to take an anthropology class or two…
So Taiwanese are only Hoklo? Good lord, we must to be living in different worlds…
In your fantasy world, only Hoklo want to be called Taiwanese, while all the other are happy being called Chinese, and more so, they want to be called Chinese.
