In the 1950s to the 1960s, Buddhism in Taiwan was very closely related to efforts encouraging college youths to study Buddhism. The third generation leaders of Buddhism in Taiwan at present mostly come from Buddhism societies and clubs organized in colleges at that time. Zhou Xuan-de was the pioneer and founder of these college Buddhist societies and clubs. To attract youths, Zhou first used the radio to spread the messages and teachings of Buddhism. He used monetary gifts received on his 60th birthday to print books on Buddhism and gave them to college and university students for further study and reading. At the same time, Zhou established various scholarships which attracted the first batch of university and college students to study the religion. This act then propelled the formation of NTU Sunrise, Taiwan’s first Buddhist association. Zhou then provided counseling to other colleges and universities to establish their own Buddhist societies and clubs, and created a monthly publication titled Huiju Yuekan (Torch of Wisdom monthly) as well as Huiju Zhouhui (Torch of Wisdom porridge meeting) platform to enhance the cohesiveness and exchange of Buddhist societies. Zhou’s active encouragements exposed many college and university students to the study of Buddhism, helped to improve knowledge levels of Buddhism, and resulted in wide ranging impacts to the development of the religion in Taiwan. Many people therefore gave him the title of Father of Buddhist Societies in Colleges and Universities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the background and reason for Zhou Xuan-de to encourage youth participation in Buddhism. The study then reviewed Zhou’s actions that transformed the stereotypical image of Buddhism as a pessimistic, backward, superstitious and ignorant belief system into an active and advanced study that promoted wisdom, and the measures that Zhou had adopted to convinced many youths to start practicing Buddhism and spread its teachings. Zhou helped to see many youths of excellent standing joining Buddhism as its ordained monastics (the Sangha) or lay Buddhists, which reinvigorated the religion and gave it new life.
