64
HUBERT SEIWART
westernization then thorough modernization means thorough westernization. This amounts to giving up one's own cultural identity. There are many reasons to suppose that no society would go that far, unless it is forced to from the outside.
This is not the place to look into the mechanisms of what might be called "cultural resistance". Let it suffice here to note that the present situation in Taiwan is characterized by two opposite trends. On the one hand we have the fact of modernization with its need for innovation. Innovation, of course, means discontinuation of traditional patterns and in many cases westernization. On the other hand we have the need for cultural identity, which means symbolization of continuity, distinctness and self-assertion. These two trends are mutually opposed because more modernization as a rule implies more westernization and thus less distinctness. Less distinctness, however, increases the need for cultural identity.
Renaissance of institutional religions as a response to the problem of cultural identity
As we have seen, one element of I-kuan Tao and other popular religious movements is traditionalism. It is obvious that the adherence to traditional religious beliefs and practices can be a means of symbolizing cultural continuity and thereby identity. But we can go one step further: it is above all religion which is used as a symbolization of cultural identity. The reasons for this are manifold and can only be hinted at here.
First of all, religion is the most important symbol system in traditional societies, at least on the popular level. This applies also to China where the legitimation of most strategic positions of reality had a strong “religious" coloration: the important institutions like the family, the norms of social interaction, the values guiding personal cultivation, “national” history and the cosmic order. To remove the religious elements from the symbol system which explains reality would cause a collapse of the system and result in anomy. If anomy is to be avoided the old religious-oriented symbol system would have to be replaced by an alternative one without religious elements. Since such a substitute is not available for large portions of the population who have been socialized in the traditional legitimation system, the interpretation of reality must continue to make use of religious symbols.
Second, modernization in China, as probably in most non-Western
64
HUBERT SEIWART
westernization then thorough modernization means thorough western- ization. This amounts to giving up one's own cultural identity. There are many reasons to suppose that no society would go that far, unless it is forced to from the outside.
This is not the place to look into the mechanisms of what might be called "cultural resistance". Let it suffice here to note that the present situation in Taiwan is characterized by two opposite trends. On the one hand we have the fact of modemization with its need for innovation. Innovation, of course, means discontinuation of traditional patterns and in many cases westernization. On the other hand we have the need for cultural identity, which means symbolization of continuity, distinctness and self-assertion. These two trends are mutually opposed because more modernization as a rule implies more westernization and thus less distinctness. Less distinctness, however, increases the need for cultural identity.
Renaissance of institutional religions as a response to the problem of cultural identity
As we have seen, one element of I-kuan Tao and other popular religious movements is traditionalism. It is obvious that the adherence to traditional religious beliefs and practices can be a means of symbol- izing cultural continuity and thereby identity. But we can go one step further: it is above all religion which is used as a symbolization of cultural identity. The reasons for this are manifold and can only be hinted at here.
First of all, religion is the most important symbol system in tra- ditional societies, at least on the popular level. This applies also to China where the legitimation of most strategic positions of reality had a strong “religious" coloration: the important institutions like the family, the norms of social interaction, the values guiding personal cultivation, “national” history and the cosmic order. To remove the religious elements from the symbol system which explains reality would cause a collapse of the system and result in anomy. If anomy is to be avoided the old religious-oriented symbol system would have to be replaced by an alternative one without religious elements. Since such a substitute is not available for large portions of the population who have been socialized in the traditional legitimation system, the inter- pretation of reality must continue to make use of religious symbols.
Second, modernization in China, as probably in most non-Western
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