Andre’s Reviews > The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Chinese Sectarianism in Taiwan > Status Update

If it hadn't been for that story of the young medium and how his station benefited him, I might have skipped this part. Now that it goes into details of a sect, it becomes quite dry.

Wait, is the author using Taiwanese as synonymous with Hoklo and that is why he mentions Hakkas as a minority within this sect? And the account he quotes states that the sect was basically founded in the 39th year of the republic (1950), and talks about all of China. Sounds like a heavy influence from the KMT laws. AFter all, the account states that the Venerable Mother came down in Hualien.

I do wonder whether this condemnation of people going to dance halls and cinema too often is really just anti-western sentiments as the author suggested or might be based also in old sentiments towards any sort of entertainers.

naturally, a way to become immortal includes diminishing yin and refining yang. Which makes it even weirder than in another sect it is told that due to their ability to give birth etc it is easier for women to cultivate the real (yes that is what it is called), than men. The author even points out that this is in contrast to what the Great Enlightenment book says.

Naturally, the prostitute is depicted as evil. Never mind that back then it was a way of life, barely anyone ever chose. And what is this nonsense about another woman, a wife, being sentenced to be reborn for a life as a beggar and prostitute? Wouldn't that mean her sins would just accumulate anew? That sounds like a rigged system.

well, I should have guessed that some of the rules for good behavior would include women being subservient to men. I did not expect that it would directly state that women have it harder to be good and have to work twice as hard.

Great Saint Equal to Heaven? Is that referring to Sun Wukong? I would not be surprised if this was the monkey king, I saw it before that this fictional character became somehow a folkloric god.

I can see why the Kangxi emperor of the relatively new Qing empire would not like it if there is an alleged dragon pool in Taiwan that has such good geomancy that it would create a new emperor (a true dragon).

A Taiwan born sect called the Religion of the Yellow Emperor and it was founded in the 1950s? Was it founded by Mainlanders? It sounds like it.

descent of the phoenix, supporting the phoenix and the flying phoenix and apparently each time the word luan means phoenix. I was confused and looked it up and based on AI, the term Luan does not refer to the fenghuang but a different bird, the one actually associated with emperors and new ages and harmony. Hm, that explains a few things here and in other cases. So they should have termed the book the flying Luan.