By focusing on three primary field sites, namely South Africa, the United States, and East Asia (China and Japan), and applying the methodological framework of multi-sited ethnography, we aim to understand the transnational organizational structures, the creation of transnational social spaces, and the dynamics of central control and decentralization of the two religious organizations.
Their endeavours connect, cross, and inhabit countries affected by Chinese migration as well as facilitate cross-border spatial arrangements such as transnational communities (including Chinese diaspora/Chinese cultural sphere/Buddhism). Particularly since the gradual relaxation of political restraints in 1980s Taiwan, both religious organizations have started to spread their religious and cultural traditions on a global scale. This project explores the global spread of the two Taiwanese religious organizations Foguangshan (“Buddha’s Light Mountain”) and Yiguandao (“Way of Pervading Unity”) by studying their transnational religious spaces. Secondly, the timely change of organizational missions corresponding with the shift in social identity of urban residents from “Work Units” to “Communities” in urban Shanghai. Based on the ethnographic work, I argue the successful structural adaption of the Tzu Chi movement corresponding with, first, the promotion of socially engaged Buddhism, which aligns with state policy and interests. While social service is the central focus of Tzu Chi Foundation worldwide, I raise the question of how a global movement of moral reform and social service can help us rethink the normative account of “public engagement” in a highly regulated and censored society such as China. At the same time, Buddhist communities have become more diversified due to the international immigration of Buddhist groups. With a renewal of the religious idea of “Humanistic Buddhism,” temples have set up guideline to conduct their charitable work. Since the 2000s, state-led religious charities have been gradually implemented among Han Buddhist monaster-ies in China.
This article aims to analyze a realization of socially en-gaged Buddhism outside of Buddhist monasteries in China by using the case studies of Tzu Chi Foundation.
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