Blogs » Politics » Photo: In the Hebei countryside, by Jordan Pouille

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• Photo: In the Hebei countryside, by Jordan Pouille
• Trust Among Chinese Drops to Record Low
• Going Undercover, Evangelists Taking Jesus to Tibet

Photo: In the Hebei countryside, by Jordan Pouille Posted: 23 Feb 2013 10:50 PM PST In the Hebei countryside © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: jordan pouille Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Trust Among Chinese Drops to Record Low Posted: 23 Feb 2013 12:00 AM PST The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' newly released Annual Report on Social Mentality suggests that social trust in China continues to fall. From He Dan at China Daily: The Blue Book of Social Mentality, the latest annual report on the social mentality of China, analyzed respondents' trust toward different people and organizations and drew a conclusion that trust in society is poor. The trust level was 59.7 points out of a full mark of 100 points. In 2010, the trust level was 62.9 points. [...] It showed that around 30 percent of the people polled trusted strangers on the street and about 24 percent trusted strangers online. While People's Daily attributes the distrust to "the lack of shared social values" among Chinese, a report from South China Morning Post suggests that the reason might lie in Chinese parenting: In most cases, a higher number of Chinese parents admitted to telling 'instrumental' lies which entice the child into doing something. The report, published in the International Journal of Psychology, found that in both countries [China and the U.S.] the practice of lying to one's children to encourage behavioural compliance was rife and most frequently took the form of falsely threatening to leave a child alone in public if he or she refused to follow the parent. [...] Cross-cultural differences were also seen: a larger proportion of the parents in China reported that they employed instrumental lie-telling to promote compliance, and a larger proportion approved of this practice, as compared to the parents in the US. The arrests of six fake monks at the sacred Buddhist mountain Wutaishan will do little to solve the problem. From Josh Chin at The Wall Street Journal: Some in China have argued that a revival of religion might help fill the moral vacuum that has been swirling at the center of Chinese society ever since the country shed its belief in communism to embrace market economics three decades ago. But with surveys showing trust eroding in China, news of a fake monk scheme at a sacred mountain suggests even religion isn't immune to the no-holds-barred hustler ethos that has come to dominate so much of the country. [...] The Temple for the God of Wealth and another temple called Foguo Zhongxin reportedly hired fake monks to trick tourists into donating money and buying expensive incense, Xinhua said, adding that the temples also fooled tourists into paying too much for ceremonies. [...] The companies in charge of managing Wutaishan and some of China's other sacred peaks have made headlines in recent years by announcing plans for initial public offerings on stock markets. Those announcements prompted Liu Wei, deputy director of China's State Administration for Religious affairs, to issue a press release in June saying the administration would object to the commercial exploitation of religious resources. See also One-Child Policy Accused of Breeding Mistrust, via CDT. © Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Buddhism, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, monks, moral vacuum, parents, trust crisis, Wutai Shan Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Going Undercover, Evangelists Taking Jesus to Tibet Posted: 22 Feb 2013 11:50 PM PST At The Guardian, Jonathan Kaiman examines the activities of Christian missionaries in Tibet. These have prompted widespread distrust among the overwhelmingly Buddhist population, but appear to be tacitly accepted by the authorities. More than 10 people interviewed for this article said that Chinese authorities in Tibetan areas were selectively tolerant of missionaries for reasons that range from pragmatic to borderline sinister. One is that they are a boon to local economies – they open lucrative businesses and teach at local schools for next to nothing, supplementing their meagre salaries with donations from home. Authorities may also consider missionaries politically trustworthy, reluctant to undermine their spiritual missions by openly criticising regional policies. And lastly, the government may welcome them as a powerful counterforce to Tibetan Buddhism, with its electrifying political overtones. […] Most missionaries in Tibet belong to nondenominational organisations which believe that Jesus Christ will return to the earth only when people from every social, cultural and linguistic group have been exposed to his teachings. These groups view mass conversion as a high form of ecclesiastical service, and as such, their tactics can be covert and transactional. Some lure young Tibetans with the promise of English lessons or professional training and coax them into conversion after making sure of their loyalty. Various Tibetans in Xining expressed disgust with this tactic. One likened it to bribery. […] According to [Columbia University's Robert] Barnett, Tibetan distrust of missionaries is shorthand for a much broader context – "where the whole structure of Tibetan ideas, beliefs, and cultural values is being radically undermined, year after year, by the Chinese project, by modernity and globalisation in general". Another vulnerable aspect of Tibetan culture is its language, particularly as expressed in place names. A group of pro-Tibetan organizations in the West is attempting to preserve these names by campaigning for their inclusion in Google Maps. While some officials may believe that missionaries would not jeopardize their religious work with political meddling, others seem unconvinced. A set of instructions on how to deal with foreign proselytizing, leaked in December, urged "forceful measures" to prevent missionaries from "westernizing and dividing China." © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Buddhism, Christianity, missionaries, religion, Robert Barnett, Tibet, tibetan buddhism Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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