Professor

Chün-fang Yü Projects

Current Research Project:

A book in Chinese and English editions to be entitled "Buddhist Nuns of Taiwan: The Case of the Hsiang-kuang Bhiksuni Sangha" based on documentary research and field work carried out in Taiwan for eight months in 1998. Buddhism has been undergoing a revival in Taiwan during the last twenty years. One of the most striking characteristics is the large number of college educated women who have entered the Sangha. A rough count puts the proportion of nuns to monks at a ratio of four to one. I will use a community of nuns, the Hsiang-kuang Bhiksuni Sangha, as an example to show the recruitment patterns, the religious and professional training they undergo, and the activities they engage in upon graduation from the seminary run by the community. I will pay particular attention to the difficulties and challenges these young women faced when they decided to enter the monastic life, how they overcame them, and the impact of these educated women on Taiwanese Buddhism. The book will draw on the ethnographical as well as archival materials about this community. I shall investigate how gender and modernity have changed Buddhism in Taiwan. I am equally interested in knowing how this new form of Taiwanese Buddhism is able to attract more modem, educated and professional women in Taiwan.

Last updated: 10/03/00