ABSTRACT
What we saw in the last twenty years in Taiwan was a result of a long history in religion and media dynamics-a history that started with newspapers and radio programs. And such a history is, of course, not limited to Taiwan, but has recurred in other Asian countries in those same years. Religious publishing in modern China has been analyzed in full detail in recent research and publications (Clart 2015; Clart and Scott 2015; Scott 2013). Radio broadcasting also has a long history in the mainland. About XMHB Buddha’s Voice (foyin diantai 佛音電台), which was founded in the early 1930s, Holmes Welch reported that, as far as he knew, it was “the first Buddhist broadcasting station in the world” (Welch 1968, 76). Forty years later, Francesca Tarocco made the same conclusion (Tarocco 2007, 129) and discussed meticulously programs that were transmitted in China from 1930s onward. Similar stories come from other Asian countries. In South Korea, Buddhism started its media appearance in the mid-1980s; the
BBS (Buddhist broadcasting system) was established in 1990 and only five years later the BTN (Buddhist Cable TV Network) was founded.3 The case of self-immolation of the monk Thich Quang Duc during the Vietnam War was also broadcast through contemporary media settings as a Buddhist call to end the conflict; denouncement of that same war had already been aired through Buddhist programs on local radio. These cases, taken from different localities, share one element: religions used old and new media to send their message, and also to engage more strongly with the national secular and political powers.
