RAS-1981 — Page 58

RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 All AI Reviewed

HUBERT SEIWERT

in the political and social structure which eroded the social base of many traditional forms of religion. This is true especially for those forms which C. K. Yang called “diffused religion”, i.e. cults intimately connected with traditional social institutions. The best-known examples are the ancestor-worship whose social base was the traditional Chinese family, and the state cult which had its raison d'être in the traditional monarchy.

It is convenient to name the complex process of social, economic, political and intellectual changes which took place since the last century modernization. “Modernization” could then be defined as that process which leads to the formation of a new social structure and new cultural values. “New” here only means “other than traditional”, it being assumed that it is sufficiently clear what “traditional social structure” and “traditional cultural values” in the case of China mean. This definition might appear too vague and, therefore, unsatisfactory but we have to leave it this way since any attempt to define it positively seems to be doomed to failure. For modernization is essentially an open-ended process which makes it impossible to determine what the “new” social structure and the “new” cultural values will be. We have to avoid the quasi-evolutionary assumption that the transformation into a modern society necessarily produces a Western-style industrial society.

While we cannot say to which end-result the process of modernization in China will eventually lead, it is possible to name some of the elements of this process. I would like to mention only three which seem to have rather obvious consequences for traditional forms of religion: industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact. This characterization applies to Taiwan as well as to Communist China even though the degree of industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact differs widely in these two societies. It goes without saying that there are many additional elements of modernization in China, some of which are more or less confined to one of these two societies.

In what follows I deal only with the Taiwanese case, primarily because I had the opportunity to do field research there. We should observe, however, that the extent of industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact since 1949 has been much greater in Taiwan than in the People's Republic. The impact of these factors on religious life has therefore been stronger, too.

It is not surprising that the thoroughgoing changes in social and

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44 HUBERT SEIWERT in the political and social structure which eroded the social base of many traditional forms of religion. This is true especially for those forms which C. K. Yang called “diffused religion”, i.e. cults intimately connected with traditional social institutions. The best-known examples are the ancestor-worship whose social base was the traditional Chinese family, and the state cult which had its raison d'être in the traditional monarchy. It is convenient to name the complex process of social, economic, political and intellectual changes which took place since the last century modernization. “Modernization” could then be defined as that process which leads to the formation of a new social structure and new cultural values. “New” here only means “other than traditional”, it being assumed that it is sufficiently clear what “traditional social structure” and “traditional cultural values” in the case of China mean. This definition might appear too vague and, therefore, unsatisfactory but we have to leave it this way since any attempt to define it positively seems to be doomed to failure. For modernization is essentially an open-ended process which makes it impossible to determine what the “new” social structure and the “new” cultural values will be. We have to avoid the quasi-evolutionary assumption that the transformation into a modern society necessarily produces a Western-style industrial society. While we cannot say to which end-result the process of modernization in China will eventually lead, it is possible to name some of the elements of this process. I would like to mention only three which seem to have rather obvious consequences for traditional forms of religion: industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact. This characterization applies to Taiwan as well as to Communist China even though the degree of industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact differs widely in these two societies. It goes without saying that there are many additional elements of modernization in China, some of which are more or less confined to one of these two societies. In what follows I deal only with the Taiwanese case, primarily because I had the opportunity to do field research there. We should observe, however, that the extent of industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact since 1949 has been much greater in Taiwan than in the People's Republic. The impact of these factors on religious life has therefore been stronger, too. It is not surprising that the thoroughgoing changes in social and

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44 HUBERT SHWART in the political and social structure which eroded the social base of many traditional forms of religion. This is true especially for those forms which C. K. Yang called “diffused religion", i.e. cults intimately connected with traditional social institutions. The best-known examples are the ancestor-worship whose social base was the traditional Chinese family, and the statecult which had its raison d'etre in the traditional monarchy. It is convenient to name the complex process of social, economic, political and intellectual changes which took place since the last century modernization. "Modernization” could then be defined as that process which leads to the formation of a new social structure and new cultural values. "New" here only means "other than traditional", it being assumed that it is sufficiently clear what "traditional social structure" and "traditional cultural values" in the case of China mean?. This definition might appear too vague and, therefore, unsatisfactory but we have to leave it this way since any attempt to define it positively seems to be doomed to failure. For modernization is essentially an open-ended process which makes it impossible to determine what the "new" social structure and the "new" cultural values will be. We have to avoid the quasi-evolutionary assumption that the transformation into a modern society necessarily produces a Western-style industrial society. While we cannot say to which end-result the process of moderniza- tion in China will eventually lead, it is possible to name some of the elements of this porcess. I would like to mention only three which seem to have rather obvious consequences for traditional forms of religion: industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact. This characterization applies to Taiwan as well as to Communist China even though the degree of industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact differs widely in these two societies. It goes without saying that there are many additional elements of modernization in China, some of which are more or less confined to one of these two societies. In what follows I deal only with the Taiwanese case, primarily because I had the opportunity to do field research there. We should observe, however, that the extent of industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact since 1949 has been much greater in Taiwan than in the People's Republic. The impact of these factors on religious life has therefore been stronger, too3. It is not surprising that the thoroughgoing changes in social and

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HUBERT SHWART

in the political and social structure which eroded the social base of many traditional forms of religion. This is true especially for those forms which C. K. Yang called “diffused religion", i.e. cults intimately connected with traditional social institutions. The best-known examples are the ancestor-worship whose social base was the traditional Chinese family, and the statecult which had its raison d'etre in the traditional monarchy.

It is convenient to name the complex process of social, economic, political and intellectual changes which took place since the last century modernization. "Modernization” could then be defined as that process which leads to the formation of a new social structure and new cultural values. "New" here only means "other than traditional", it being assumed that it is sufficiently clear what "traditional social structure" and "traditional cultural values" in the case of China mean?. This definition might appear too vague and, therefore, unsatisfactory but we have to leave it this way since any attempt to define it positively seems to be doomed to failure. For modernization is essentially an open-ended process which makes it impossible to determine what the "new" social structure and the "new" cultural values will be. We have to avoid the quasi-evolutionary assumption that the transformation into a modern society necessarily produces a Western-style industrial society.

While we cannot say to which end-result the process of moderniza- tion in China will eventually lead, it is possible to name some of the elements of this porcess. I would like to mention only three which seem to have rather obvious consequences for traditional forms of religion: industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact. This characterization applies to Taiwan as well as to Communist China even though the degree of industrialization, urbanization and cultural contact differs widely in these two societies. It goes without saying that there are many additional elements of modernization in China, some of which are more or less confined to one of these two societies.

RAS-1981 — Page 58

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