Americanization is the process of making something “American.” In the case of religions,
it involves altering earlier forms and defining characteristics in order to conform
to and reflect dominant American cultural values. Americanization is intimately related
to Protestant Christianity and capitalism. In the case of Asian religious traditions,
Americanization involves appropriation, popularization, simplification, commodification,
and commercialization. Under the process of Americanization, Asian religions tend
to be made more individualistic and universal. Their indigenous cultural connections
are frequently severed. One also finds an anti-clerical and anti-ritualistic bias.
Major alterations (distortions?) of Daoism include deemphasis on community, culture,
ecclesia, embodiment, gods, language, place, scripture and tradition. Issues of family
resemblance and recognizablity are relevant here. That is, it is not enough that
people in America self-identify as “Daoists” because misconceptions of Daoism are
ubiquitous.
Some Sinologists have suggested that it is impossible to have “non-Chinese” forms
of Daoism because the religious tradition is so intimately associated with Chinese
culture, including the importance of Chinese language in Daoist ritual. However,
one need only reflect upon the Sinification (“making Chinese”) of Indian Buddhism
in China in order to recognize the problematic nature of such claims. Most of the
major Mahayana Buddhist schools in East Asia are Chinese schools; these include Chan
禪 (Meditation; Jpn.: Zen), Huayan 華嚴 (Flower Garland; Jpn.: Kegon), Jingtu 淨土 (Pure
Land; Jpn.: Jodo), and Tiantai 天台 (Celestial Terrace; Jpn.: Tendai). Such schools
are Chinese transformations of the earlier Indian tradition. For example, Chan Buddhism
developed under the influence of distinctively Chinese concerns with lineage and
genealogy and the Daoist emphasis on trans-rational consciousness and dialogic exchange.
It is a Daoistic form of Buddhism (cf. Chan yulu texts with the Zhuangzi), even incorporating
allusions to the Zhuangzi throughout its literature (e.g., “dropping away of body
and mind”). Paralleling the Indianization or Buddicization of Chinese culture, the
Chinese transformation of Buddhism involved the replacement of Pali and Sanskrit
with Chinese as well as a reconceptualization of the Buddhist sangha. Religious adherents
and converts modify religious traditions according to their particular concerns and
values. This same phenomenon is currently underway in the globalization of Daoism.
Further Reading: A New Religious America/Diana Eck; Buddhism in China/Kenneth Ch’en;
Buddhism in Chinese History/Arthur Wright; Faces of Buddhism in America/Charles Prebish
and Kenneth Tanaka (eds.); Spiritual Marketplace/Wade Clark Roof; “The Dao of America”/Elijah
Siegler; “Tracing the Contours of Daoism in North America”/Louis Komjathy.
See also Daoism, Family Resemblances and Popular Western Taoism.
