POREG VIEW: A Taoist priest faking miracles is the latest fraud to hit China. In recent weeks and months, the land of long march has seen a deluge of scams that ranged from ‘fake’ doctors out to cure diabetes and cancer to prostitution rackets in hotels frequented by tourists and frauds in labour bureaus.
The trend reflects either poor policing or laxity in the iron grip of the Communist party; may be both. It puts spotlight on the deep fault-lines Beijing would like to hide from the outside world. Not addressing them does no good to China’s image, which keeps flexing its muscles to intimidate its neighbours at regular intervals.
The Tao priest episode shows that in the fiercely secular Communist country, traditional beliefs and cults are seeing a quiet revival. That is why Li Yi, abbot of Shaolong Temple at Jinyun Mountain in Chongqing, was able to gather a following of 30,000 disciples, many of them celebrities like software developers and pop stars.
One of his miracles was breathing from his heels while submerged under water. Another was living in a glass chamber. Electric shock was one of his standard fares for treating the sick. Yet, the authorities neither stopped his gimmicks nor took him to task. What can be reason? In the absence of any official response, the only charitable conclusion can be that the Communist mandarins have forgotten the lessons in scientific temper they had learnt by rot at school. Li Yi was regular on local TV. And his fee for a three-day experience course was 390 yuan, while a week-long course carried a price tag of 9,000 yuan.
As. Fang Zhouzi, a commentator known in China for exposing religious frauds, says the likes of Li Yi are able to survive because the Chinese people still hold the past in awe. It is also because official agencies like Religious Affairs Bureau have failed. The message is clear. Neither booming economy nor a hard-won super power status can hide feet of clay despite mud slides every where.
The trend reflects either poor policing or laxity in the iron grip of the Communist party; may be both. It puts spotlight on the deep fault-lines Beijing would like to hide from the outside world. Not addressing them does no good to China’s image, which keeps flexing its muscles to intimidate its neighbours at regular intervals.
The Tao priest episode shows that in the fiercely secular Communist country, traditional beliefs and cults are seeing a quiet revival. That is why Li Yi, abbot of Shaolong Temple at Jinyun Mountain in Chongqing, was able to gather a following of 30,000 disciples, many of them celebrities like software developers and pop stars.
One of his miracles was breathing from his heels while submerged under water. Another was living in a glass chamber. Electric shock was one of his standard fares for treating the sick. Yet, the authorities neither stopped his gimmicks nor took him to task. What can be reason? In the absence of any official response, the only charitable conclusion can be that the Communist mandarins have forgotten the lessons in scientific temper they had learnt by rot at school. Li Yi was regular on local TV. And his fee for a three-day experience course was 390 yuan, while a week-long course carried a price tag of 9,000 yuan.
As. Fang Zhouzi, a commentator known in China for exposing religious frauds, says the likes of Li Yi are able to survive because the Chinese people still hold the past in awe. It is also because official agencies like Religious Affairs Bureau have failed. The message is clear. Neither booming economy nor a hard-won super power status can hide feet of clay despite mud slides every where.
