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CCS Fall 2025 Webinar Series: Religion Through Food and Family in Chinese Trad

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The Beef Taboo in China explains how and why, around the turn of the second millennium, the Chinese determined that cattle should not be slaughtered or eaten. This taboo remained prevalent until the beginning of the twentieth century and is still observed by some today. Goossaert situates this prohibition within evolving Chinese attitudes toward animals and meat and juxtaposes the taboo with vegetarianism and other forms of meat ethics. He argues that the emergence of this specific practice must be understood in several contexts, notably a new agricultural economy and ecology in early modern times that protected plow cattle and marginalized pastures; a sacrificial reform that eliminated beef as the standard offering to gods and spirits; and the development of Daoist rituals, cults, and moral theology that tabooed beef and made this observance a linchpin of Chinese civilization. Literature for Little Bodhisattvas argues that picture books are a new genre of religious writing that reframes Buddhism and offer fresh perspectives on its teachings for both children and adults. Surveying Taiwanese Buddhism from the ground up, Heller explores the changing family dynamics that have made children into a crucial audience for Buddhist education and the home a key site for Buddhist cultivation. By taking picturebooks seriously as part of the Buddhist textual tradition, Heller demonstrates their engagement with canonical sources alongside innovations for modern audiences. Close readings analyzing both text and image trace narrative themes about Buddhist figures, and connect representations of buddhas and bodhisattvas to a visual culture where new values such as cuteness are articulated. Heller shows that picture books equip children with strategies to interpret everyday life in Buddhist ways and provide religious models for action in the modern world.

Event Sponsor
Center for Chinese Studies, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Adriana Choi, 8089568891, choiadri@hawaii.edu