Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Movement by C. Julia Huang (review)

Abstract

Book Reviews 111 Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Movement C. JULIA HUANG. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009. ix, 341 pages. ISBN 978-0-674-03133-3. US$49.95, £36.95, €45.00, hardcover. The modern development of religion in Taiwan has gained the attention of Western scholars from several fields, ranging from religious studies to political science. It has been especially the new phenomenon of the worldwide Buddhist organizations, such as Foguangshan 佛光山, Tzu Chi 慈 濟 and Fagushan 法 鼓 山 , that has become the topic of a number of multidisciplinary researches. To mention just the most recent scholarship, the Buddhist nun Cheng Yen 證嚴 and the Tzu Chi Foundation 佛教慈濟慈善事業基金會 have been analyzed in terms of interaction with the political and public spheres,1 as well as in the context of the emerging of a Taiwanese democracy and the consolidation of the new middle class.2 Julia Huang’s book contributes to this new field of study by undertaking a thorough ethnographic investigation, in and outside Taiwan, and asking questions that have been neglected so far. The author analyzes the history and consolidation of Tzu Chi through the concept of charisma (charisma embodied by a religious leader and rationalized as an organization) and the discourse of identity, and thus unveils the roots and essence of the Taiwaneseness of Buddhism in Taiwan, as well as the connection between religion and ethnicity in the context of overseas Chinese. The book begins with a chapter on the life of the nun Cheng Yen and the early history of the Tzu Chi Foundation, from its establishment to the opening of the first branches overseas in the early 1990s. The second chapter shifts the attention from Cheng Yen to the structure and bureaucracy of Tzu Chi, and from Cheng Yen as charismatic leader-nun to Tzu Chi as manifestation and rationalization of the nun’s authority. This chapter offers a detailed analysis of the structure of Tzu Chi, in the many offices and groups of members, and demonstrates how the hierarchy among the several bodies lacks a defined structure but finds unity and consistency through Cheng Yen’s figure and missions. The psychological portrait of female and male members, and thus the dynamics of the interplay between religion and society, makes this chapter of interest to the field of gender studies. Chapter 3 links the figure of the nun to her organization by highlighting the charismatic authority of the Tzu Chi Abode 慈濟 精舍, which is the spiritual and logistic headquarters of the entire organization. The interaction between Cheng Yen and her disciples at the abode, and the symbolic value of the material objects within the abode support the overall argument. The parallel between the pilgrimage to the Tzu Chi Abode (which Tzu Chi followers consider and call “home”) and the Mazu 媽祖 pilgrimage in Taiwan, the importance of Cheng Yen’s “walk” 行腳 (which refers 1 André Laliberté, The Politics of Buddhist Organizations in Taiwan: 1989-2003 (London: Routledge/Curzon, 2004). 2 Richard Madsen, Democracy's Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan (Berkeley: University of California, Press, 2007). 112 Journal of Chinese Religions mostly to her visits to the many Tzu Chi branches), and finally the psychological and sociological analysis of the followers’ experience in the “Tzu Chi train” 慈濟列車 are the main contributions of this chapter. Chapter 4 articulates the pattern of emotions in Tzu Chi, focusing on the “musical corporeality,” “weeping,” the “lachrymose” attitude of Tzu Chi followers, the sign language and the sign language songs. While the chapter provides an interpretation of Tzu Chi’s weeping within the context of the culture of tears in Chinese history and religion, the argument that “[c]rying in Tzu Chi is not considered to be a ritual” (p.128) can be disputed, since the various ways in which the field of religious studies has defined the concepts of ritual and ritualization can allow one to see the Tzu Chi tears as a ritual dimension. The same chapter includes a section on sign language songs, which are seen as an identity-factor in Tzu Chi. Indeed the making of popular songs into sign language songs is a feature of Tzu Chi, but the chapter lacks references to...