Having not heard about China’s application of Daoism teachings in their nationwide policies and regulations, I was intrigued by how they work. My interest in how they work is a surprise to me since I was exposed to Daoism practices since young in Malaysia, but I never cared to understand its teachings.
In the religion’s studies, climate ethics are emphasised to adjust and design cultural adaptation in the way of interaction between humans and the environment (Chen and Schonfeld, 2013). For example, the Chinese Daoist Association (CDA) adopted these principles and utilised their moral influences to educate and envision a society that is of post-consumerism. In other words, there is a promotion of well-being distinct from addictive consumerism. This literature successfully identified how Daoist practitioners were encouraged to promote energy conservation and environmental protection. These efforts were conducted in both individual and group levels including practising waste separation, recycling, using mass transit and even maintaining small carbon footprints. China took lessons from these practices and magnified the scale of operation to national-level, in a problem-focused educational manner rather than through a religious or political agenda. I think this guaranteed their success in adopting policies from religious studies, and I would like to dissect this further.
Further reading into Chen and Schonfeld’s research (2013), I learned that China’s 2019–2025 CDA Seven Year Plan for Environmental Protection has expanded to include more extensive approaches in wildlife protection and ecological education. This act received support from the people, especially the Daoist practitioners community who are committed because they could agree with integrating scientific findings in their religious teachings and ideology. This has prompted the Communist Party to commit to designing policies and regulation surrounding sustainable development, based on scientific evidence and research. In my opinion, this reflects the success of a political party in weighing in the people’s interests when tackling such a prioritised matter concerning the environment. The outcome was impressive, as Chen and Schonfeld reported, China successfully initiated environmental projects in the range of afforestation to sustainable agriculture. I have much thoughts about gaining the people’s support when applying a religion-inspired plan, seeing communities following Buddism, Christianity, Islam and other religions co-exist in the country.
Coming from the Islamic country, Malaysia, the use of religious teachings in government-level policies is common. Note that Malaysia promotes the freedom of beliefs and religion despite recognising Islam as its national religion. I identify that in China, there is a wider spread of agreement in the application of religious teachings as governance policies, even though there is a variety of religions being practised in the country. I found that this is mainly because the application is very much based on the interaction between human and the environment, using daoism teachings to guide directions in achieving sustainable development. In Malaysia, however, religion-based teachings were used in certain controversial social policies which a proportion of citizens do not agree with. To name an example, Muslim men are allowed of polygamy; and Islamic family law allowing child marriage has been a heated discussion relating to individual financial sustainability and social justice in the community. This situation highlights that China’s success comes from cautiously extracting teachings of conserving the environment from a religion and putting environmental care first, and that has garnered support from the citizens. This points to me that good governance is truly a pillar to achieve social and economic stability and sustainable development. The governing system in China weighs in the people’s interests when designing religion-inspired policies and focuses their interests in developing the nation with caution without putting anyone on the risk of social injustice or taboo, which Malaysia risks playing with in their system.
Moreover, the famous Daoist peak in China, Maoshan, has hosted several ecology conferences and produced declarations over the years that include agendas advocating for simpler, eco-friendly lifestyles and to build environmentally friendly Daoist temples (Lemche and Miller, 2019). The construction of Daoist temples following Daoist environmental teachings, and sustainable standards was even endorsed by the Xi Jinping administration. The improved temple designs are planned with respect to smart, energy-saving use of building materials, sustainable recycling systems and sewage treatment, and these temples were aimed to be a base of education for ecology and the environment (He, 2007). I find their direction smart as they improve models of local traditions without angering religious practitioners who are often sensitive and intense about what they can or cannot practise. It seems to me that China has assimilated their culture into a futuristic model of living, when temples are used as a base to educate youngsters on sustainability. However, what boggles my mind is the regulation around the burning of incense sticks and papers, which contributes to similar dire environmental effects as open burning. The literature, Chen and Schonfeld (2013), does mention authorities limiting the number of incense sticks per visitor at the temples. Yet, it remains unclear how much the limit or cap is able to reduce pollution, since the practice has been common among China’s huge Daoist community for centuries, which means the practitioners’ habits or understanding may be hard to change. I wonder how advanced China’s technology is to make joss sticks eco-friendly, and to what extent burning them can reduce pollution, as I could not find literary evidence that can prove their quantified effect in combating climate change and global warming.
Furthermore, I realised that ecological temples are only found in China where environmental awareness is more prominent due to governmental policies. Daoist temples elsewhere in the world have not necessarily been able to catch up with the structural evolution to embrace sustainability yet. For example, in Malaysia, the Daoist community is large so the practices of burning incense sticks and papers contribute to huge environmental implications. Every QingMingJie (a festival where ancestors’ tombs are to be swept) and July in the Lunar Calendar (Hungry Ghost Festival), Daoist practitioners often burn items ranging from cars, houses and clothes made of paper as tributes to their ancestors. Such ‘tributes’ make a huge market in the Malaysian economy, even though Muslims make the highest population in the country. This is because these items are often handmade and are priced sky-high due to high demand. From my personal observation, there is very little awareness in Malaysia surrounding the burning of joss papers and it saddens me. When open burning is conducted, the air quality drops and may cause many chronic respiratory diseases to the local population; local temperature may rise; air particles may even block the breathing cells of plants, thus stunting their growth. This is a major problem because the same issue happens in many other Asian countries including Taiwan and Singapore. I think this field lacks scientific research and truly requires more attention from the public. However, when regulating the joss paper market, the government will need to delicately consider every party involved since a sudden ban would most likely anger Daoist practitioners, implicate the business of vendors and lead to huge economic losses. First, the government will have to approve alternative practices that allow the Daoist community to convey their devotions and prayers so as to maintain social peace. Secondly, as mentioned that the joss paper market in Malaysia is huge, its contribution to the Malaysian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) cannot be cut off brutally with an immediate effect. The government needs to look for other ventures to cover up the fall in GDP. All in all, we must recognise that social and economic stability are also important pillars of sustainable development.
The lecture on Daoism Ecological Principles truly intrigued me. Even though this is a relatively small section in the lecture material, it sparked interest in me to read more on religion-based policies and how governing attitudes could lead to making sustainable development a success. I think China makes an excellent model in carefully extracting the essence of Daoism and applying their teachings in the application of environmental care and achieving sustainability. Their forefront strategies in governance had not only united citizens but also successfully convinced their Daoist communities to embrace scientific findings and adjust their religious traditions to be more eco-friendly. In my opinion, other countries still lack the awareness we already see among the Chinese and we should fight to match their efforts or work together to design the best strategies that could make global sustainability a closer reality.
(The views discussed in this reflection piece are based on the author's personal opinions/experiences and limited research) By, Euan Thum, December 2021.
References
Carrick, D. (2020) What it’s like to be in a polygamous marriage? Muslim Malaysians share their stories. ABC Radio National, Shifting Cultures.
Available online: What it's like to be in a polygamous marriage? Muslim Malaysians share their stories - ABC News
Chen, X. and Schonfeld, M. (2013) A Daoist Response To Climate Change.
He, X. (2007) Taking Care of Nature: Building Up the Daoist Ecology Temple by Our Own Hands.
Available online: http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/07%20June%20workshop%20report.pdf
Lemche, J. and Miller, J. (2019) Global Capital, Local Conservation, and Ecological Civilization: The Tiejia Ecology Temple and the Chinese Daoist Association’s Green Agenda, Semantic Scholar, DOI:10.3390/rel10100580
Miller, J. (2017) China’s Green Religion: Daoism and the Quest for a Sustainable Future. New York: Columbia University Press.
Razif, N. (2019) The Changing Face of Polygamy in Contemporary Malaysia. Woolf Institute. Available online: The Changing Face of Polygamy in Contemporary… | The Woolf Institute (cam.ac.uk)
Selan, S. (2021) Child marriage in Malaysia: how old is too young? It depends on who you ask. Malaysia Now. Available online: Child marriage in Malaysia: how old is too young? It depends on who you ask | MalaysiaNow
Zhang, J. (2001) A Declaration of the Chinese Daoist Association on Global Ecology. In Daoism and Ecology: Ways within a Cosmic Landscape. Edited by N. J. Girardot, James Miller and Xiaogan Liu. Cambridge: Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions
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