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	<title>sustainable china &#187; religion</title>
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	<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info</link>
	<description>researching religious values for ecological sustainability</description>
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		<title>the religion and ecology of the blang minority nationality</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2011/08/16/religion-and-ecology-in-blang-minority-nationality/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2011/08/16/religion-and-ecology-in-blang-minority-nationality/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:29:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>James Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Fieldwork]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blang]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=462</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The question of how to promote a culture of ecological sustainability in China took me this summer to conduct exploratory fieldwork among the Blang minority nationality, in Yunnan province, close to the border between China and Myanmar. The Blang are one of China&#8217;s smaller nationality groups and occupy a remote mountainous terrain that is a gruelling and dangerous three-hour drive from the county town of Menghai. The economy of the Blang village where I stayed was based increasingly on the production of tea. Previously subsistence farmers, the villagers had now turned almost exclusively to the production of tea leaves which, when processed, become the famous and expensive pu&#8217;er tea. Since the economic and land reforms after the cultural revolution, the villagers had been steadily converting their lands to the production of tea, with tea bushes now dominating the steeply-terraced mountainsides. After harvesting the tea leaves, the villagers dry and lightly roast the tea leaves before selling them via middlemen to nearby tea factories that ferment, process and package the finished product. The village is distinguished by well-preserved social customs: villagers are divided into a number of exogamous clans; newly married men live in their wife&#8217;s family&#8217;s home for three years; [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>china must talk to its religious leaders to create a culture of ecological sustainability</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/09/25/china-must-talk-to-its-religious-leaders-to-create-a-culture-of-ecological-sustainability/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/09/25/china-must-talk-to-its-religious-leaders-to-create-a-culture-of-ecological-sustainability/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:33:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>james</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pan Yue]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sustainability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=275</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the past sixty years China has achieved something close to a miracle when compared with other developing nations. It by and large manages to feed, educate, house and employ its own people. It is not involved in futile and costly military conflicts. It is a creditor nation, not a debtor. Its social and political system provides sufficient stability for the vast majority of its people to pursue their own livelihoods in a rational and predictable way.Yet all this will be lost if the world does not help China to embrace an ecologically sustainable culture. The reason for this is simple. With a population of 1.4 billion, China simply cannot afford to expand its per capita ecological footprint to the level of Europe, let alone America or Canada. Already the stresses on its environment are beginning to take a toll on the social fabric. The Gobi desert is at Beijing’s doorstep and the capital must divert water hundreds of kilometres north from resentful provinces who have to do more with less. The pollution from factories in rural areas prevents farmers from earning a living by growing healthy crops. River life for China’s southern neighbours is threatened by massive hydro-electric projects [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/09/25/china-must-talk-to-its-religious-leaders-to-create-a-culture-of-ecological-sustainability/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>what is freedom of religion for?</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/06/17/what-is-freedom-of-religion-for/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/06/17/what-is-freedom-of-religion-for/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:22:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>james</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environmental ethics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=247</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There is hardly a truth more sacred to the contemporary American imagination than that religion must be free from interference by the state and that the state must be free from interference from religion. Neither of these ideals holds true in China, and this fact is an enormous thorn in the side of Chinese-American relations, especially as regards the Tibet question. The fact is that religions and the state in China have co-existed in something of a symbiotic relationship for thousands of years. In medieval China, Buddhists seeking to ingratiate themselves in the life of the court proposed rituals to bring about the salvation and prosperity of the empire. Daoist priests also ordained emperors and oversaw court rituals. In return, the Emperor bestowed his patronage on monasteries and temples, granting them land, money and prestige. At the heart of this arrangement was a very simple and natural proposition: you help me and I&#8217;ll help you. Similar versions of this arrangement operated in medieval Europe until they were disturbed by the Protestant reformation. In the wake of this upheaval, zealous sects fuelled by pious visions of absolute purity sought to cut themselves off completely from the state and create utopian societies [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>does environmental science lead to environmental action?</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/04/03/does-environmental-science-lead-to-environmental-action/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/04/03/does-environmental-science-lead-to-environmental-action/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:41:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>james</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=228</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I have just finished teaching my undergraduate course on religion and the environment. Most of the students are in engineering or environmental science, and the course fulfills a humanities requirement for them. It&#8217;s been fascinating teaching scientists about religion, as you can imagine, but it&#8217;s also been hard. One of the most serious problems that I&#8217;ve had to deal with among my students is the basic assumption that seems to be taught in environmental science, namely that knowing more about the environment is the best way to generate action on the environment. This assumption is, from a historical perspective, hard to justify. The development of the modern scientific view of nature has not been accompanied by an enhanced respect for nature. Rather, scientific knowledge of the environment has swept away any traditional sense of nature as sacred or deserving of respect. At the same time it has enabled massive industrial exploitation of natural resources without regard for ecological sustainability. Now I&#8217;m not against science. Far from it. But I am against the simplistic fallacy that knowing about the environment necessarily leads to better adaptation to the environment. The cultural anthropologist Roy Rappaport long ago made the important distinction between the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>religious traditions and the future of east asia</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/01/19/religious-traditions-and-the-future-of-east-asia/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/01/19/religious-traditions-and-the-future-of-east-asia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:25:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>James Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[buddhism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Confucianism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=203</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here&#8217;s three reasons why China&#8217;s traditional religions and cultures will play an increasingly important role in the East Asian political scene.  In mainland China, more people than ever are turning to religion. An interview with Arrianna Liu, who works in a Beijing-based NGO, reported that it&#8217;s not just the government&#8217;s attitudes that have changed. Ordinary people are now more curious about religion, and more tolerant of it, especially foreign religions such as Christianity. Confucianism is increasingly being recognized as part of the social fabric that holds East Asian society together. Chinese scholars such as Kang Xiaoguang at Renmin University in Beijing, which has traditionally trained the cadre ranks of the Communist Party, openly advocate a more direct reliance on Confucian values for future policy directions. Moreover, Confucianism is also key to understanding East Asian society from Korea to Vietnam. And it is also a source of controversy for diaspora Chinese living in Indonesia.  Buddhism is playing an important bridging role in relations between mainland China and Taiwan. China&#8217;s second World Buddhist Forum is being held in the spring this year and is being held jointly between the mainland and Taiwan. Academics and Buddhist teachers will be holding the first part [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/01/19/religious-traditions-and-the-future-of-east-asia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>i&#8217;m dreaming of a green christmas</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/22/im-dreaming-of-a-green-christmas/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/22/im-dreaming-of-a-green-christmas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:53:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>James Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[consumerism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environmental ethics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=173</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By James Miller Christmas, as we all know, is the grand festival of the religion of consumerism. We pay homage to our saviour Santa Claus in the vast cathedral of the shopping mall. There we make a sizeable donation to the faltering economy and, just because it’s Christmas, cheerfully pay the GST to our non-existent government. We stagger home laden under the weight of a vast array of glittering gifts. We then dress them in the finest of wrappings and reverently lay them at the foot of the sacred tree. Over a sacrificial meal of turkey and pinot noir our family bonds are strengthened, relationships renewed, and we settle into a blissful oblivion before the television set. A friend of mine, however, recently told me of his plans to inject some ethical concern into this time-honoured ritual. My friend, like countless millions in the West, is part of a new breed of shopper, the “ethical consumer.” And this year he decided he wasn’t going to buy his children any toys made in China. His reasoning was that China has lax environmental regulations and poor safety standards. When I asked him whether he thought that this would cost him more money, [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/22/im-dreaming-of-a-green-christmas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>closing the religion deficit</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/14/closing-the-religion-deficit/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/14/closing-the-religion-deficit/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:13:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>James Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environmental ethics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=152</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By James Miller An editorial in Friday&#8217;s Dallas Morning News argued that Hillary Clinton, the incoming U.S. Secretary of State, should move to &#8220;close our diplomats&#8217; religion deficit.&#8221; The argument was that in order to succeed in international relations, it&#8217;s vital for the state department to understand the role religion plays in shaping the politics and culture of the world. This, in fact, was the theme of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright&#8217;s book The Mighty and The Almighty: Reflections on God, Man and World Affairs. In modern culture, religion is understood as something that belongs to the private realm, not the public realm. The consequence of this is that people involved in world affairs such as politicians and journalists are trained to deliberately ignore the role played by religion in shaping people&#8217;s values and attitudes. Religion, it is argued, plays a diminishing role in the world and is therefore best forgotten. World affairs are to be explained by economics, politics and culture, in that order. This results in a &#8220;religion deficit&#8221; or a lack of basic &#8220;religious literacy,&#8221; as the title of Stephen Prothero&#8217;s recent book put it.  The fact is, however, that we do not live in a modern [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/14/closing-the-religion-deficit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>the end of environmentalism?</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/01/the-end-of-environmentalism/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/01/the-end-of-environmentalism/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:46:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>James Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Questions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gus Speth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yale]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=36</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By James Miller In October I was invited to participate in a symposium on International Perspectives on Nature and Culture organized by the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. I was on a panel responding to a paper by the French philosopher Augustin Berque. His most recent book is called La pensée paysagère (Paris: Archibooks 2008), and it articulates a fundamental distinction between “thinking of the countryside” or “la pensée du paysage” and “country thinking” or “la pensée paysagère.” In modernity, he claims, we have ideas about “nature” or “the environment,” but we do not have ideas that are grounded in nature as a biophysical reality or which express themselves in the flourishing of nature. We have too much “pensée du paysage” and not enough “pensée paysagère.” The contradiction of modernity is that the theorization, symbolization and fetishization of nature as a concept proceeds apace and at the very same time as the annihilation of nature as a biophysical reality. The thought that &#8220;environmentalism&#8221; is a kind of fetish that actually hinders the progress towards ecological sustainability came to me again when I heard a talk given by Gus Speth, the Dean of the School of [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/01/the-end-of-environmentalism/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>daoism and climate change action</title>
		<link>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/01/daoism-and-climate-change-action/</link>
		<comments>http://www.sustainablechina.info/2008/12/01/daoism-and-climate-change-action/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:37:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>James Miller</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[UN]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=31</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By James Miller I was very interested to read this article, published on the UN website, on Daoism as the “Way” for climate change action in China. The article was written by Olav Kyorven, an assistant secretary general of the UN Development Program. In the article he reports enthusiastically on a recent conference of Daoist leaders in Nanjing to agree on a seven year action plan for climate change. Measures include retrofitting Daoist temples with solar panels, managing local environmental projects, and educational programs. Kyorven is right when he states that Daoism “probably has more on offer to the environmental cause in today’s China than any other major, organized religion.” The problem is that Daoism has not wielded significant political force in China since the end of Ming dynasty in 1644. The subsequent Qing dynasty generally favoured Buddhism and expelled the Daoist Celestial Master (the supreme leader of the Daoist priestly order) from the imperial court. Now Daoist leaders, it seems, are key to recover a strong position within Chinese society and assert their relevance for 21st century society. Daoism is also important from the perspective of its significance in Chinese culture. Daoist concepts of yin and yang, and the virtues [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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