Asian local cultures against global warming

Dear Friends,

The Climate Change Talks in Accra (Ghana, August 21-27) have shown an accrued international mobilization against global warming. These talks are to be continued and finalized in December during the United Nations conference on Climate Change in Poznan. In between, Renlai and the Taipei Ricci Institute organize an international colloquium focusing on “culture and climate” (Taipei, October 4), featuring Dominique Baudis, President of the Institute for the Arab World in Paris as the European keynote speaker. The program and the registration form are on the eRenlai conference page.

Ying-chun Hsieh, an architect in Taiwan and China, introduces his concept of a sustainable construction in community which is why he got one of our 2008 Life Sustainability Awards. One of our contributors, Shufan Yang, shares her experience as an apprentice in the Atelier 3 founded by Ying-chun Hsieh.
A video and a short text also give example of how Taiwan tackles global warming.

In our editorial section, the Sichuanese photographer Liang Zhun presents pictures taken one hundred days after the earthquake in China during a ceremony for the dead. Less mournful is my short movie about an ominous oracle in Kyoto. Benoit Bouquin rails against stereotypes in some Hollywood movies: Movies and cultural diversity. Bob, inspired by the previous article, reflects on another kind of stereotype: An American Perk.

On the occasion of the publication of a book by Christian Cochini, Guide des Temples Bouddhistes de Chine, Benoit Vermander provides us with an overview of Buddhism revival in China. The Taipei Ricci Institute is also celebrating the launching of a new book published by Jean Lefeuvre: Collections of Oracular Bones Inscriptions which is an analytical catalogue of 412 collections of oracular inscriptions. This volume will be presented on September 19, at the Tien Educational center in Taipei, at 6pm (for more information, contact Alexandre Chen)

We hope that this month’s releases will give you lots of new energy for September!

Khmer Krom

(extract from the Herald Tribune's article Buddhist monks, police clash during protest in Cambodia)

"Dozens of Buddhist monks kicked, punched and hurled bottles at baton-wielding police in Cambodia's capital Monday at a demonstration to demand religious freedom for monks in neighboring Vietnam.
The clashes erupted as about 40 monks approached the Vietnamese Embassy in Phnom Penh to submit a petition against authorities' alleged mistreatment of Buddhist monks in the communist country.
The protesters accused Vietnamese authorities of arresting and defrocking several ethnic Cambodian monks over the past few months.
(...)
In the Phnom Penh protest, about 100 riot police used batons to beat back the monks, blocking them from marching near the embassy."

These Buddhist monks are Khmer Krom, that is to say ethnic Khmer who inhabited the Mekong Delta before the arrival of the Vietnamese. Since the incorporation of the Mekong Delta into Vietnam in 1954, the region has cristallized tensions between the Cambodian and the Vietnamese. Indeed, Khmer Krom are forced to assimilation by the Vietnamese governement who impose them Vietnamese names and Vietnamese language. They are also victims of some ostracism which is reinforced by their practicing a different religion than Vietnamese people (Khmer Krom are Theravada Buddhists, like Cambodian and Thai people, but unlike Vietnamese who are Mahayana Buddhists or Roman Catholics).

Buddhist monks, police clash during protest in Cambodia - Herald Tribune 12/17/2007

An article about Khmer Krom temples and religion
Forgotten Treasures of Khmer Culture in the Mekong Delta by Moeun Nhean