ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two main dimensions that help explain their potentials for social action: a range from formal to informal organization, and from more voluntary to more communal membership criteria. It discusses the official business associations like Chambers of Commerce fall at the formal end, and the everyday webs of real connections so important to both Taiwanese and Chinese business fall at the informal end. The new Taiwanese Buddhist groups fall at the far formal end in religion, with the pietistic sects close behind, and ghost worship far at the other side. Local environmental movements in Taiwan also often pick up the language and social networks of kinship and make use of symbolism from family ritual, especially funerals. Women's involvement, in contrast, tends to emphasize the household itself over the lineage. This universalizing theme fits easily with the national organizations run by women, with its emphasis on nurturance of children and of the earth itself.
