This Monday, our tutor asked us Chinese students what religion do we believe in. We all answered we are free thinkers. When the tutor asked the reason, none of us could give a specific explanation. I have searched on google about how foreigners think of the religion of Chinese. I found that most foreigners think we do believe in religion. I felt strange, so I began to think about the reasons why we cannot know ourselves better than foreigners. The following is what I have thought of.
I think most Chinese believe in many religions and they usually do not focus on one religion. As a result, they make themselves confused, and they even do not think they have believed something. For example, most Chinese believe in mixed Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Temples are often located in some places of interest, and they are "must-see" attractions. Adults, especially old people, like to visit such places to pray for their children, even though they have to pay much money to buy the joss sticks and candles. As for Confucianism and Taoism, students learn them from primary school until college. They are traditional thinkings in China. Chinese government uses them to typically represent Chinese culture and promote our culture overseas. We students are accustomed to these thinkings, and some even have got tired of them. We do not regard them as religions, but actually they are and we do believe in them more or less. Some thoughts have already been rooted in our deep hearts. We may expose some religious thoughts unintentionally through our behavior.
As I have explained, most Chinese indeed believe in some religions to a certain degree. However, every religion is believed only a little, and most Chinese are not crazy about a specific religion. Therefore, we always think we do not believe in any religion at all. In fact, we have cheated ourselves.
I think as we have many kinds of religions and some of them have very long history in China, it is hard for Chinese people to live a life totally without religion. It is our own unique culture; many people believing in mixed Buddhism, Taoism and some other religions. In fact, there is not a clear boundary to distinguish which religion that we believe in but we do sometimes believe in religions.
ReplyDeleteFor Chinese, few people are invovled in one religion throughly. For them, whether thay believe in Buddhism or Taoism or Confucianism,they only think it is just a belief not a religion.And some may belief in diffrent beliefs from different religions
ReplyDeleteI think the definition in religion beliefs has differences between China and other counties.
ReplyDeleteI still don't think I am a Buddhist, if I go to temple to pray.
Many Chinese like to pray, but they don't follow the principals of Buddhism. I don't think they are Buddhist.
I think if a person has a religon, he or she must observe principals.
A very interesting question, Tianqi. I would also say I'm a free thinker, which means that I respect all religions because all of them are to teach people to behave well and to help the others. At the same time, I also believe that there is someone or something who can help or punish the human beings, i.e. the Heaven or "Tian."
ReplyDeleteYour idea is reasonable. I had the same question as you before and I think I got the answer here. Actually my family believe in Buddhism, but I still like to say that I am a free thinker coz I respect their religion but not so believe in that.
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