American Buddhism has two outstanding characteristics, including the nature of immigration and ethnicity. Asian-American Buddhists occupy 70-80% of the whole Buddhists in America. Non-Asian-American Buddhists mainly include those Buddhist followers who or whose ancestors were from Europe, Africa or Latin America. In fact, the identity of Buddhist followers can effectively help them go beyond the boundary between ethnic groups. For example, the identity of Chinese-American Buddhists has helped them weaken their self-consciousness as Chinese in America, and shorten their distance from American mainstream society. Meanwhile, this identity has also helped them strengthen their traditional association with Chinese culture, thus gradually forming a complex network of social relationship. That is to say, the identity of religious believers won’t aggravate the contradiction and confrontation between various ethnic or religious groups in such an immigration society as America. Then, if the cultural connotation of a religion is emphasized, and the political coloration of an ethnic group is weakened, the identity of religious believers will be beneficial for the construction of a pluralistic and integral cultural system and social structure in the era of globalization with ever-increasing population mobility. Of course, as a religious belief represents certain values, morality and ethics, the believers of a religion from outside must first of all respect the local social customs and the mainstream values. Otherwise, the foreign religion can hardly establish itself locally.
