Virtuous Women on the Move: Minnan Vegetarian Women (caigu) and Chinese Buddhism in Twentieth-Century Singapore

移動的善女人：閩南菜姑及二十世紀新加坡漢傳佛教

蘇芸若(Show Ying Ruo)

《華人宗教研究》 17期 (2021/01) Pp. 125-181

https://doi.org/10.6720/SCR.202101_(17).0004

摘要

This article focuses on a heretofore little-studied community of Chinese Buddhist women in Singapore, vegetarian women (caigu 菜姑) of China's Minnan 閩南 region (Southern Fujian 福建), exploring their historical origins and social networks in the region. Drawing on ethnographic insights and written sources, this study presents a picture of a twentieth century transnational Buddhist network initiated and maintained by these women. The paper discusses how the fluidity of their Buddhist identities reveals transformations in regional Buddhist movements and their negotiations within that context. Such diverse images of female Chinese Buddhists allow us to reconsider the many historical faces of ＂traditional Buddhist women.＂ In this case, the Buddhist women's active networks were not confined to the family, and they did not rely on men in socioeconomic endeavors. As an important female diasporic group in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, caigu often negotiated and integrated both their religious resources and dynamic roles across international locales. By establishing vegetarian halls, Buddhist temples, schools, and business networks, caigu from Minnan served as significant links in the Buddhist social networks between China and Southeast Asia. The women remained intrepid in striving for survival, while at the same time maintaining this little-known Chinese Buddhist sisterhood.

關鍵字

vegetarian women (caigu 菜姑) ； Minnan 閩南 (Southern Fujian 福建) ； Chinese Buddhism ； female monastic orders ； Buddhism

並列摘要

本文聚焦學界較少關注的新加坡佛教女性群體—閩南菜姑，探索其歷史淵源及其在區域間行使的社會網絡。通過田野調查及文獻研究，本文呈現菜姑參與建構並積極維繫的二十世紀跨國佛教網絡，討論其佛教身份的流動性如何透露了區域間佛教運動之轉變與協商的語境。多樣化的漢傳佛教女性圖像讓我們得以再思傳統佛教女性的多重歷史面貌—她們的活動網絡不局限於家內，或需要在經濟上依賴男性；作為十九世紀、二十世紀重要的女性離散群體，她們時時協商並整合其宗教資源與跨域的能動性。通過建立齋堂、佛寺、學校、生意網絡等，閩南菜姑是中國與東南亞國家之間佛教社會關係網絡的重要連結。她們在堅毅求存的同時，維繫著鮮為人知的佛教姐妹會。

並列關鍵字

菜姑 ； 閩南 ； 漢傳佛教 ； 齋姑 ； 佛教

參考文獻

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