Religious chic
- Source: Global Times
- [22:28 January 27 2010]
- Comments
The golden-domed Shrine of the Bab, the world spiritual center of the Bahá'í faith in Haifa, Israel, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in July 2008. Photo: CFP
By Zuo Xuan
It was rush hour on a hectic Wednesday afternoon as Deng Sheng, a media company manager, battled the winter chill to reach his friend's house in Shunyi district, suburban Beijing.
He was hurrying to attend a worship session with friends and acquaintances that share the same religious belief: Bahá'í.
Originating in Iran, Bahá'í is a fast-growing religion with a history of 160 years. It claims about 5 million followers in more than 200 countries and regions, surpassing every religion but Christianity in its geographic reach, according to Bahai.org, the official website based in the United States.
The number of Bahá'í followers in China has grown rapidly since about 1990: Chinese visitors to Bahai.org accounted for 10 percent of total page views last year, second only to the US and Egypt, according to Web data company Alexa.
There is no official demographic data available about Chinese worshippers. There might be over 20,000 Chinese Bahá'í followers in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Shenyang, Yinchuan and Changchun, estimated Cai Degui, director of the Institute for Bahá'í Studies at Shandong University, in the capital city of Jinan.
The figures are hard to obtain as the faith has such an informal, flexible style of worship, said the director of the Center for Bahá'í Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"The Bahá'ís have no conversion ceremonies for newcomers, nor do they have churches to host activities in China," said Wu Yungui, whose research center was set up 10 years ago to explore the status of Bahá'í in China.
Bahá'í is not officially registered with the Chinese government, he said.
There are simply no statistics, confirmed Wan Lili, a researcher who once worked at the Institute of Bahá'í Studies in Shandong University.
"But I feel Chinese society is showing much more willingness to understand and accept the Bahá'í faith than 20 years ago when the religion was reintroduced to China after its last apperance in the 1930s."
She cited her research papers on Bahá'í being turned down for publication because of doubts over possible cult status four or five years ago. Lately, they have found more acceptance.
"I have been thinking about applying for a national project to study its status as I've felt it's growing in popularity," said Wan, a lecturer of the School of Philoso-phy and Social Development at Shandong University.
