Ode to China boots out nuns
It was bad enough, villagers thought, when the kindly Buddhist nuns were forced out of their historic temple and longtime home. But what began as a bitter property dispute took a bizarre political turn — right into the heart of cross-strait tensions between China and Taiwan.
After taking over the property and evicting the four nuns who lived there, Wei Ming-Jen, a Taiwan native hired to build an addition to the century-old building, set out to convert Biyun Temple into something likely never before seen on this island: an extravagant shrine to China’s Communist Party.
Gone are the Buddhist ritual drums and traditional Chinese calligraphy scrolls. Instead, Communist Party symbols, propaganda posters and portraits of party leaders like Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai now adorn the century-old temple tucked into a hillside in Ershui, in central Taiwan.
Outside the temple’s entrance, the fire-engine-red and canary-yellow flags of the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party soar into the sky, overlooking sleepy villages and verdant rice fields.
It is rare — though not unheard of — to see such a brazen display of support for the Communist Party on the island.
“I declare to the whole world and all of China that I am determined to lead the people of Taiwan province to reunify with our motherland,” said Wei, 60, an intense man with close-cropped hair and an unflinching stare, in an interview at the converted temple.
“It is my responsibility to raise China’s flag in Taiwan,” he added.
Wei’s actions would have been considered treason a few decades ago, but Taiwan is now a thriving democracy.
“Taiwan is a free country,” said Akira Chen, the director of the Changhua county cultural affairs bureau.
But the manner in which Wei took over Biyun Temple has fuelled suspicions.
Several years after Wei was hired to build the addition, the contractor said the nuns owed him money. The nuns said they had paid Wei the full $3.2-million (U.S.) fee. They also said he persuaded an elderly member of their order to sign documents she did not understand.
Acourt ruled for Wei. After a public auction, he came into possession of the property; the nuns were evicted in 2012.
Since then, they have been sleeping in shipping containers beside the property.
Villagers have no choice now but to worship at a makeshift temple set up by the nuns at their encampment. Attendance has dwindled.
“We just want the temple back,” said Fa Ci, 70, a nun. “It was built with the people’s money.”
The nuns believe that at the very least, Wei has deliberately aligned himself with the Communist Party to tap into nationalist sentiment in China and gain an advantage in the long-running dispute.