NUMBER 29Report NOVEMBER • 2003 CENTER for the PACIFIC RIM THE CENTER FOR THE PACIFIC RIM PROMOTES “Nourishing the Spirit: understanding, communica- tion, and cooperation The Search for Meaning in Contemporary China” among the cultures and economies of the Pacific Rim and provides leader- ship in strengthening the position of the San Francisco Bay Area as a pre-eminent American In 1999 the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western gateway to the Pacific. It Cultural History at the Center for the Pacific Rim, fulfills its mission through interdisciplinary academic University of San Francisco, inaugurated an on- programs, research, print going cross-disciplinary initiative—“Nourishing and online publications, the Spirit: Social Change and Spiritual Develop- scholarly exchanges, conferences, and other ment in China Today.” Complementing the Ricci outreach activities. Institute’s continuing support of research on the historical interactions of China with Christianity, Two Distinguished Fellows of the Ricci Institute’s EDS-Stewart Chair—historian of THE RICCI INSTITUTE IS this new initiative explores the contemporary part of the Center for the resources that Chinese people find to support their religion James D. Whitehead and social Pacific Rim. It is a leading spiritual search in this time of profound personal psychologist Evelyn Eaton Whitehead—are interdisciplinary research working closely with Dr. Fan in the work of and social dislocation. center that promotes, in the analysis and interpretation of her research. spirit of Matteo Ricci, the They offer here an overview of the initial encounter of Chinese Sociologist FAN Lizhu of culture and Christian faith findings of this joint effort. Fudan University in by conducting research projects, organizing confer- Shanghai, a Fellow of the ences and producing schol- Ricci Institute’s EDS- arly publications. With its Stewart Chair, has studied 80,000-volume Chinese the shape of this spiritual Library and The Ricci 21st hunger and the sources of Century Roundtable, the N N N Institute offers premier spiritual nourishment in contemporary WE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE the EDS-Stewart Chair for resources in the study of Shenzhen. Through a series of in-depth inter- Chinese-Western Cultural History at the USF Ricci Christianity in China. views she examined the resurgence of spiritual Institute and the Kiriyama Chair for Pacific Rim Studies at the USF Center for the Pacific Rim for funding this beliefs and practices among the commercial issue of Pacific Rim Report. workers and small business owners who make up this city’s emerging middle-class. Spiritual Needs, Spiritual globalization cast here in such sharp relief, Shenzhen presents a compelling site for examin- Nourishment in Shenzhen ing the impact of social change on spiritual consciousness. James D. Whitehead and Evelyn Eaton Whitehead The Shekou Incident Ricci Institute, University of San Francisco, USA In January of 1988 two Chinese political repre- sentatives arrived in the Shekou district of the he city of Shenzhen, an hour’s train ride burgeoning new free economic zone of Shenzhen. from Hong Kong, was not long ago a sleepy Sponsored by the Communist League, they came Tfishing village. In 1979 as part of his pro- to lecture an assembly of young workers, all gram of Reform and Opening, Deng Xiaoping recent migrants to Shenzhen from towns and vil- declared this village and a vast track of surround- lages throughout China. Their instruction carried a ing territory as a special economic zone. With familiar message: the revolutionary ideals of party generous tax incentives in place for foreign invest- and state must continue to guide the Chinese ment, the city has exploded into a rough-edged worker. The lecture was routine, but the response metropolis of seven million, of whom several mil- it generated was not. lion are temporary workers or ‘floating residents’ In the midst of the instruction, a young work- “Shenzhen who work various jobs without the benefits of er arose in protest. In tone and terms that were legal residency. presents a startlingly direct, he challenged their message as First-time visitors are often bewildered by the empty propaganda, words that no longer carried compelling site pace and energy of Shenzhen. But what appears weight in Shenzhen. “We have come to for examining to many foreigners as lawlessness and disorder, Shenzhen to make money,” he boldly asserted. the impact of appeals to workers here as opportunity. Here workers do not need to depend on the Ian Buruma captures these contrasts: “The state-controlled work unit (danwei ) for social change atmosphere is young and brash. A raw, even their jobs. Here workers are able to find employ- on spiritual primitive, vitality—life reduced to food, sex and ment on their own; fired from a factory one day, a laborer can easily find work by the next. In this consciousness.” money flows through these new streets like a muddy river.” But, Baruma continues, “For many exploding economic arena, he announced, party young Chinese that is precisely its attraction. To ideals and government directives are irrelevant. be relieved of the burdens of home, history, and And the gathered workers cheered his audacious tradition is a form of liberation. Opportunities announcement. await at the frontiers of the wild south— Reports of this act of public defiance—the opportunities to make money, but also to carve ‘Shekou Incident’—spread quickly. The workers out a modicum of personal freedom.”1 in this economic free zone were embarked on a In many ways the city of Shenzhen is unique new adventure. The laissez-faire atmosphere of in China: more than 90% of its inhabitants were Shenzhen’s economic frontier offered job options born elsewhere; the average age of current that released them from dependence on the all- residents is less than thirty years. Social and providing, all-controlling institution of the psychological forces here differ dramatically from danwei. those that still prevail in the interior regions Opportunities for individual choice quickly where most Chinese live. The speed of change in expanded beyond the economic realm. With the Shenzhen has outpaced even the rapidly mod- wider range of options came an increased aware- ernizing urban metropolises along China’s ness of personal responsibility. Where to live, eastern coast. what life-style to pursue, what values to adopt— But while this free economic zone is not typi- now these decisions had to be made on one’s cal of China today, it may hold significant clues own. Among these industrial migrants—no to this country’s future. With the dynamics of longer embedded in the values of family and abbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbc 2 N The Ricci Institute at the USF Center for the Pacific Rim village life, no longer limited by the directives of role of a distinct group of professionally trained the work unit—a taste of personal responsibility leaders, heightened concern for orthodoxy in developed into an appetite for personal freedom. belief and practice. And, in ways that contradicted predictions of Responding to these western connotations, both Marxist orthodoxy and western seculariza- many early observers insisted that China had no tion theory, this expanding economic freedom religion. Later scholars both in China and the released spiritual hungers as well. west distinguished sharply between the multiple The Spiritual Search in Shenzhen ‘superstitious’ beliefs adhered to by the masses and the ‘great traditions’ of Confucianism, The metropolis of Shenzhen boasts new and Buddhism, and Taoism. Researchers today speak refurbished worship sites of each of the five reli- more appreciatively of the spiritual significance gions officially recognized by Chinese law— of China’s local traditions. Recently Daniel Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, Protestant and Overmyer reviewed over fifty books on Chinese Catholic Christianity. And while accurate num- popular religion written since 1990 by Chinese bers are difficult to determine, membership in scholars. In nearly all these works a surprisingly these registered religious groups is on the rise positive tone has replaced the more convention- here as well as elsewhere throughout mainland al view of local practices and beliefs as mere China. But our research reveals another dynamic superstition. He concludes, “What we see here of Chinese modernization. Confronted by new “ is not only a new direction in scholarship, but Instead they questions of meaning and purpose, these respon- also a great and historic culture finally trying to dents did not turn to the now-approved religious gave very recognize and come to terms with the religious institutions of Buddhism or Christianity. Instead personal traditions of the great majority of its people.”3 they gave very personal expression to their expression to spiritual search, in the age-old idiom of China’s We have adopted the phrase ‘common spiri- common spiritual heritage. tual heritage’ to characterize these cultural their spiritual This tradition, often dismissed by scholars as resources. This spiritual heritage is centered in search, in the ‘folk religion’ or ‘popular belief’, has long been the family and pivots on a recognition of the age-old idiom of overlooked and undervalued. Even as the vital energy of (qi ) animating all reality. Its Chinese government softened its view of the beliefs and practices, as Overmyer explains, are China’s common legally recognized institutional religions such as rooted in a particular vision: “the world itself is a spiritual sacred place of power and mystery and…to Buddhism and Christianity, the customary heritage.” beliefs and practices of ordinary Chinese were human beings belongs the important task of still considered ‘feudal superstition’ and—as cooperating with this power and making it oper- ative in society.” And, in a significant departure such—without legal status.2 Significantly, it is from the religious sensitivity of the west, “what this lack of government recognition and control we call the sacred and profane are here blended that makes these spiritual practices attractive to 4 many in Shenzhen.