Taiwan Explorer Part 12: Religion in Taiwan

A brief look at the random religious stuff going on in Taiwan. Temples, prayers, joss paper, ghost money, ghost month, etc., followed by a trip into the mountains.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Taiwan
• China
• temples
• Taoism
• Buddhism
• ghost month
• ghost day
• joss paper
• Hell money
• ghost money
• religion

[TheGaoliang]

The temples are so horrible in Taiwan, and they have no sense of time either. They will start their noise "music" and fireworks at 6 AM (even on weekends) without hesitation or consideration for other people who might want to be sleeping.

[monkeetime]

@TheGaoliang what is this "con-see-de-rashun" thing you speak of? I havent seen it in Taiwan...

[hokila678]

rottenzombie27@DNA plays a very important role so everything can be changed in one second, not to mention 60 years ago. We don't claim China as our own. We treat China as a different country from Taiwan.

90% Taiwanese are not Han Chinese. We are native Taiwanese, pure or mixed.

[monkeetime]

According to official governmental statistics, 98% of Taiwan's population is made up of Han Chinese. Approximately two-thirds of those are descendants of early immigrants (70% of ethnic Hoklo and 15% of ethnic Hakka) from the adjacent Fujian (Hokkien) and Guangdong (Canton) province who crossed the Taiwan Strait to work for the Dutch during the 17th century.

[monkeetime]

Since I am the ultimate authority on this page, I will settle it once and for all (well, until the next comment, anyways):

Taiwan and China, on a macro scale, are the same culturally. You can be as nationalistic and xenophobic as you like, but that's the truth. Just like Canadians essentially ARE Americans, Czechs are Slovaks, Ukrainians are Russians, and Kiwis are Aussies.

Stop building fences. It's pointless.

[FinalFantasyX2Freak]

It doesn't matter if they have similar cultures or not. Politically the two countries don't get along. Sure many Taiwanese people are originally from China, or their parents or grandparents were.

Why does it matter? It is not about where someone is from but what they consider to be their home. Of course there will always be similaries and connections but that does not mean they are one in the same. There are differences between Taiwan and China. There is no use in fighting over silly things.

[babypiyo]

@rottenzombie27 Like I said, it's the matter of english wording.This is also the reason why some of the Taiwanese hate to be called Chinese because for most people(including westerners) it is used for the people/citizens in China,or who were born in China, or the nationality, just like Americans and Canadians. Hate to say this but westerners tend to recognize the place of birth and the nationality(no matter what race or ethnic group you are) while Asians(Chinese) tend to fuss about the ancestry.

[rottenzombie27]

@hokila678

Yea you have clearly been brainwashed. Honestly, not even the most hardcore of DPP supporters would agree with what you say. Go do some research and get back to me.

[rottenzombie27]

@babypiyo

Well yea, obviously Taiwan will have some of it's own individual culture and tradition after being separated from China for so long. The same could be said for overseas Chinese in places like North America and South East Asia. But make no mistake about it, the back bone of traditional Taiwanese culture is still very much Chinese. Taiwanese people are Hua Ren, and they speak Chinese and practice CHinese culture.

[babypiyo]

@TheGaoliang Pfft, very ignorant to criticize their religion and culture. Wait until you live near a masjid but I'm not complaining because I do respect every religion.

[babypiyo]

@rottenzombie27 I do blame the word 'chinese' in English cuz you won't hear any 'chinese' in MY/SG called themselves Zhong Guo Ren in mando/canto/hokkien. They would however call themselves hua ren like you said, or teng lang(if you know hokkien) To be more specific, there's alot of ethnic groups in China. The majority is Han, and then they have Manchurian, Mongolian, Hmong, the Hui people and so on. Perhaps everyone will get a better concept if you think China as a big fusion of Europe.

[babypiyo]

@rottenzombie27 Japanese actually give out white packets and they dress in white during lunar new year. Well it's true but Taiwanese do have their own culture and tradition. It's totally the same thing in US anyway (like my dad's Dutch ancestry but hey we don't call ourselves Dutch heh)Some of the people in Taiwan were mixed with the aborigins.

[teuchters]

wrong!!!