In the Taiwanese film “The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon,” which lately hit theatres nationwide, the scenes through which the protagonist, Chen Kui-lin, slays the evil cult chief, Lin Lu-ho (bullhead) and wipes out the complete cult have actually made many viewers’ blood boil.
This has raised the curiosity of some netizens: what sort of cult is depicted within the film? Some folks level out that the cult within the film has some options similar to some Christian heresies unfold in mainland China, resembling confessing sins, singing hymns, private management, and so forth. Some extremists even declare that what’s proven within the film is the Christian religion and focus their assaults on it.
So, what’s the precise prototype of the cult within the film? In the film, when the bullhead talks about their religion, he makes use of ideas like “heaven and earth” and “the heavens,” which clearly come from Chinese Confucian cosmology. He additionally mentions Buddhist ideas resembling “rebirth” and “destroyers.” For occasion, within the scene the place the male protagonist exposes the cult and the cultists kill him, he used the phrase “karma” (obstacles consisting of actions). But actions resembling confessing sins and singing hymns are clearly primarily based on the practices of the Christian religion. Therefore, this cult could be mentioned to be a hybrid of a number of religions.
Many trendy cults are sometimes a mix of a number of religions. For instance, many Korean cults are a mixture of shamanism and Christianity. As for the American cult “Peoples Temple,” its chief, Jones, claimed to be the reincarnation of Buddha, Christ, and Lenin.
In the film, the bullhead is solely a villain who repackages himself below the guise of a cult so he can proceed to hurt folks.
The cult plot in “The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon” additionally reveals a big darkish facet of Taiwan: cultism is widespread. Take the Korean cult “Providence” or “Jesus Morning Star” for instance, the cult continues to function in Taiwan below the title “Chinese Christian Youth Association” regardless of the publicity of the documentary “In the Name of God,” and it has gone to nice lengths to deify and whitewash Jung Myung Seok, who’s presently serving a jail sentence in South Korea. The largest cult in Republican China, “Yiguandao,” is now working legally in Taiwan after New China outlawed it.
Taiwan’s rampant cults are largely the results of the prevalence of feudal superstition within the space. Because folks beliefs resembling “Youshen” (wandering gods), which have been handed down from the Fujian space in the course of the Spring Festival (with the elimination of rituals resembling divination and mediumship), have been nicely preserved in Taiwan, cults are in a position to flourish.
The excessive liberalism in Taiwan can also be an necessary issue within the unfold of cults. Since non secular freedom is made absolute in Taiwan, there’s a lack of correct management over non secular beliefs. Just just like the “Providence,” cults can function overtly and wouldn’t be banned even when they have been reported. In addition, some members of cults additionally be part of the political circle, and administrative assets turn out to be available to them, which will increase the problem of managing these cult teams and ends in the proliferation of monster and demon worship.
The cult in “The Pig, the Snake, and the Pigeon“ isn’t giant. Since there are numerous cult teams and folks masters of the identical kind in Taiwan, they aren’t susceptible to creating social destructiveness just like the cults in Korea. This dispersion of cults additionally makes it tough to manage them by way of social hurt, which is one other necessary issue of their unfold. It is probably going that the director noticed the lack of the legislation to cope with the cult teams, which is why he had Chen Kui-lin act as a messenger of justice to eradicate the cult.
(The article was initially printed by the Gospel Times and the writer is a Christian from Xiamen.)
– Translated by Joyce Leung
