China Field Study (Cults in China)

I Found some information about the Boxer Rebellion

It was an anti-forign uprising in north-east China. The BOXERS WERE a xenophobic, mystic society, which sought to drive the forigners from China and to restore the glory of the Quin Dynasty. In the summer of 1900 they besieged the foreign lagations' compounded in Beijing, but the seige was broken by an international relief force and the rebellion suppressed.

Please find and post more if you possible.

Michael Wanmer

Great article highlighting China's regulations on religious affairs found on http://www.hrw.org
China: A Year After Regulations, Religiuos Rights Still Restricted
Arrests, Closures, Crackdowns Continue (March 1, 2006)

It sights the regulations took effect March 1, 2005 in order to protect Chinese citizens' religious freedoms. Although on major problem is that the regulations are no well defined therefore practitioners are not sure what is allowed and what is banned. Since the regulation authorities have targeted unsupervised religious activities that have like-minded believers working together to propagate their beliefs, create new religious sites, educate children, and large-scale religious meetings. They also discourage efforts in sharing experiences, expanding membership, and traing lay & religious leaders. Religious literature is also controlled and can only be printed by accredited printing houses and disseminated through offically approved channels. The regulations do not address cults but since it went into effect 400 practitioners in Falungong have been imprisoned or sent for "reeducation". Currently China allows five belief systems: Buddhism, Daoism, Catholicism, and Protestantism as lawful religions. The regulations protect those five religions and every mosque, temple, church, and monastery that is registered with the government. Each group has a State of Religious Freedom; for example Muslims are detained if they possess an unauthorized copy of an Islamic text. In regards to Falungong the article states although their spokespeople deny that it is a religion it is a structured belief system incorporating elements of Buddhism and Daoism whose adherents are protected. In Oct/Nov 99 the governement defined "heretical cults" & stated Falungong was indeed a cult, and clarifyied how members could be prosecuted. Therefore they are trying to regulate "cults" by imprisonment, reeducation, and extra-legal detention such as psychiatric hospitals. The same laws have been used with Christian religious groups that the government insists are heterodox.

This article hits our areas of discussion: China's government regulation on cults & What they do to stop them from spreading.

More to come.....

Doing a little more research and found this great interactive map. Check it out....
http://easia.imb.org/peopleplaces/province.htm

I like how China now allows a fewreligions to be practiced only if they allow the government to strictly monoter and regulate them.
In china we need to focus on why the religions that are allowed are allowed. We can learn alot by taking pictures, my hunch is that money and makeing the citizens happy is why the government is now not calling every religion a cult.

Lets swee how it turns out

We can use this research in our history portion of the report. Our class notes give good detail of when and to what extent religion has been practiced in China. Chinese history is full of religion and only recently has religion been so restricted. We should bring out notebooks to China and as we get into various locations we should look up the past religions of that area.

Con you pull up the web sight again that gave you the stats? I was wondering if your numbers are correct on our trip i saw only one mosque. I also heard that christians outnumbered bunhists, but need to conferm the rumor.

Also do you think we should include the relationship between religion and historical cultural preservation?
Michael

Good pt. We need to clear up any rumors. I have the website info in my folder and I can bring it over next time we meet. Also, we can definitely highlight some points on religion and culture.