religious florescence in taiwan

Mary Irving (IRVING1200@DELPHI.COM)
Mon, 16 Oct 1995 20:51:01 -0400

Let me introduce my remarks by admitting that I know very little
about China, but is it possible that George Foster's concept of
"the limited good" can be applied to the Taiwan situation?
Building temples, organizing festivals, etc. sounds a great deal
like it. It would be really interesting to find out whether a
particular temple is being built for the worship of a local deity
or ancestor by and for people who came from that particular area of
mainland China? The same goes for the festivals connected with
that temple. Could it be that, even after migration to Taiwan, the
community still has enough hold over its members to force a
successful entrepreneur to dispose of a substantial amount of
capital thus trading financial success for social prestige which
renders him/her harmless by not gaining too much of the finite
resources which constitute the limited good? It's just an idea, I
am not claiming any profound knowledge.
Mary Irving <IRVING1200@DELPHI.COM"