Generating power in Taiwan: Nuclear, political and religious power

Abstract

This paper addresses how religion is playing an increasingly important role in empowering anti-nuclear protests at Gongliao in Taiwan. It begins by describing how the anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan was originally dependant on the opposition political party, and then examines how growing disaffection with party politics at Gongliao has resulted in a local temple dedicated to the goddess Mazu coming to the forefront of the struggle. This paper frames the dispute as a struggle between three different ways of generating power (and implicitly, of losing power): first, the generation of nuclear power by bureaucrats and scientists working through the industrial sector; second, the generation of political power by opposition politicians and elite campaigners; and third, the generation of religious power by people rooted in local communities, creating an alliance between religious power and secular protest.

Keywords:

• anti-nuclear
• goddess Mazu
• pilgrimage
• politics
• social movement
• Taiwan

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express her gratitude to the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy for an award, without which much of the field research would not have been possible.