Why Build a Temple?

What is it about?

Since the early 20th century, religion has been seen by the Chinese state and intellectuals as an obstacle to modernization and has thus been devalued. This article points out how this pejorative view of religion has latently persisted in contemporary Taiwan in the formulation of an important policy of community development.

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Why is it important?

The author draws on ethnography from the Mazu islands, a former frontier military base, to investigate the predicaments and breakthroughs of community projects carried out there, and to show that a sense of community began to emerge only when the local elites recognized the importance of religion and began to participate in building the village temple

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