This ethnography examines Buddhist and non-Buddhist marriages in urban Taipei, focusing on the emotional and moral responses by individuals. The thesis argues that Buddhist organizations offered the most significant alternative voice to popular marriage mores. Their tremendous growth over the 1990s—in view of their emphasis on the individual, sexual restraint, and universal salvation—is significant for theories of marriage and religion under conditions of modernity. Research for this study was conducted in Taipei between December 2001 and May 2003. It included participant- observation in homes, temples, office outings, and other activities involving couples and singles, supplemented by formal interviews of seventy-six people (ages 26–71) and a review of sixty-nine detailed questionnaires. Analysis of locally published material in Chinese (wedding manuals, best-selling books, newspaper articles and dramatic plays from both Buddhist and non- Buddhist sources) provided information on Taiwanese society as a whole. Historically in Taiwanese marriages pragmatic responsibilities took precedence over individual fulfillment. There was a clear division of labor between a breadwinning husband and a homemaker wife. Husbands exerted formal authority and had considerable personal freedom (such as the prerogative to have extramarital affairs) but delegated many household responsibilities to their wives. Although post 1945 concepts of marriage were influenced by the West and included romantic courtship, love and eroticism, and a greater acceptance of divorce, mores remained anchored in long-term mutual obligations, indebtedness, trust, affection, and children. Humanistic Buddhist views of gender equality competed with both traditional androcentric prerogatives and feminist goals. Endorsing the breadwinner-homemaker model, which subordinates the wife due to the husband's greater economic power, Humanistic Buddhist leaders enjoined husbands, not just wives, to eschew extramarital affairs and work on having a good marriage; and wives, not just husbands, were encouraged to contribute to society outside the family. These inversions of prevalent husband and wife roles are meant to increase respect for the wife, foster a rewarding relationship between the couple, and stem husbands' adulterous affairs. Because Buddhist organizations are the only ones of mass appeal that have systematic methods for changing habits of inter-personal engagement, one can expect they will have concrete and lasting effects.
