Building the Pure Land on Earth: Ciji's Media Cultural Discourse

Abstract

With its resourceful media practice and insistence on a (neo-Buddhist) this-worldly theology, the Buddhist Compassion Relief Foundation (Tzu Chi or Ciji) has constructed a unique cultural discourse, one that competes against the mainstream media culture in Taiwan. This paper employs a cultural studies approach to analyze Ciji's media cultural discourse. Specifically, it examines how Ciji media workers implement the philosophy of Master Zhengyan, the founder of the foundation, in the hope of altering society and building the Buddhist ideal of the Pure Land on Earth at home and abroad.