Abstract
Tzu Chi (Ciji) has been a famous and powerful NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) in Taiwan in the last twenty years. The Tzu Chi non-profit foundation carries out an array of tasks including delivery of charity, provision of medical treatment, running educational institutions and multimedia cultural promotions. The leader of Tzu Chi is the Dharma Master Cheng Yen. She has promoted the concept “Frugality to do almsgiving.” Therefore, Tzu Chi members not only donate what they don’t need anymore in their daily life, but also actively earn more money to help others. However, I discover an interesting point between the concept of frugality and consumption in Tzu Chi. Tzu Chi has run more than ten “complex shops” (Jingsi Shuxuan) around Taiwan these years, which offer coffee, powder of drinks, books and even the products designed by themselves(such as bowls, chopsticks, socks and so on) . In daily life the Tzu Chi members usually don’t purchase drinks except in Jingsi Shuxuan, and they often buy goods there. Tzu Chi emphasizes that all the material they have used on their products can be decomposed naturally to protect the earth. At first glamce, the concepts of consumption and frugality in Tzu Chi seem to conflict each other. Yet close observation and analysis reveal their complicated relationship. Outside this group, the members have to keep frugal in their daily life, while Inside this group, “consumption on Tzuchi products “is regarded as support to this group and, most important of all, to the leader Dharma Master Cheng Yen, whether in financial way or in spiritual way. Trying to solve the puzzle of the ideal “consumption”, I participated in the youth corps of Tzu Chi, known as the Ciqing Club, for about four years, doing participant-observation among the members in Hsinchu. In order to better my understanding of the comsumption behaviros in Tzu Chi, I try to compare it with another famous Buddist group in Taiwan—Fo Guang Shan, in hope to pinpoint the characteristics of consumption among the Tzu Chi youth. In this research, I propose the concept of “Outside(the group) frugality, Inside(the group)Consumption” to explain what I have observed in Tzu Chi. “Outside(the group) frugality” means that the consumption outside Tzu Chi should be avoided. For example, buying new books in bookstores (Tzu Chi would say that you can borrow them from library), buying drinks (it is regarded as “waste and unhealthy”), wearing beautiful clothes or makeup and so on. On the other hand, “Inside(the group)Consumption” means the consumption of products inside Tzu Chi, such as buying books written by the leader, drinks made by the nuns, and all the “green products” offered inside the group. While Tzu Chi promotes the norms such as frugality and charity, they also consume their own goods. In a word, Tzu Chi transforms the mode of consumption into a form of almsgiving. My conclusion is that although Tzu Chi members avoid buying goods(outside the group), they actually turn the idea of consumption inward to strengthen their loyalty and belief towards their religion.