Di, 13 Jun 2017, 18:00 - 19:30
VG 1.104
Platz der Goettinger Sieben 7
37073 Goettingen


Vortrag
Hsiao-Lan Hu, Ph.D. (University of Detroit Mercy)
"Bhiksuni Chao-Hwei's Buddhist Social Activism: From Solidarity
with the Disadvantaged to Marriage Equality"


Abstract
On 24 May 2017, the Supreme Court in Taiwan ruled in favor of marriage
equality, nearly five years after the much celebrated first Buddhist
lesbian wedding officiated by Bhiksuni Chao-Hwei. She has officiated a
few other same-sex weddings since that time. While the cultural
significance of such same-sex weddings officiated by a Buddhist monastic
is debatable since lay Buddhists typically do not turn to monks and nuns
for weddings and since historically Buddhism has not been vehemently
anti-homosexual as many other religions have, such ceremonies are
nonetheless groundbreaking in opening up public discourses.
In the Chinese academic and Buddhist circles, Bhiksuni
Chao-Hwei is the lone monastic-scholar-activist who develops systematic
discourses on Buddhist ethical principles and actively applies them to
social issues. She often condenses Buddhist ethics into three phrases:
co-arising, protection of beings, and the middle way. Based on these
principles, she engages in social activism defending various groups of
sentient beings who are discriminated against and/or deprived of rights
by the dominant groups, including LGBT persons. This lecture aims to
examine her reasons for supporting marriage equality in the light of her
overall understanding of Buddhist ethics, and to analyze the
significance of her public discourse and social activism.


Zur Person
Hsiao-Lan Hu ist Associate Professor of Religious Studies, and Women's
and Gender Studies an der University of Detroit Mercy.