Vernacular Modernism: Humanistic Buddhism from Below in Bade, Taiwan

The study of Humanistic Buddhism in Taiwan has typically focused on its largest, most elite representatives. These institutions are a smaller and less representative section of Buddhism in Taiwan than they might appear, however. This paper will take a different angle: looking at Humanistic Buddhism not from above, but from below; not through multinational monastic-led organizations, but through a local working-class lay com-munity; not as a discreet tradition, but as part of a broader religious market. My subject will be the Maitreya Lay Buddhist Lodge, where we find a "vernacular modernism" in which core ideas and orientations of Buddhist modernism are articulated within a broader religious field marked by enduring dynamics and tensions identified in studies of late imperial Chinese religion.