Taoism and New Age

Key Information

Taoism is a general term to name the autochthonous Chinese spiritual tradition (Kohn 2001), which is embedded in different aspects of the classical Chinese civilization, by means of some of its underlying cosmological elements, like the yin/yang philosophy, and the five energies or phases (metal, wood, fire, water, and earth) theory, as well as of its practical applications to the different aspects of life. Among the Asian religions present in Latin America, Taoism is perhaps the smallest, having much fewer adherents than Hinduism or Buddhism. Although Taoism would appear in an entry on world religions, and cannot be considered a synonym for New Age, the global propagation of Taoism outside Chinese communities has a clear relation to a certain orientalist atmosphere (Bizerril 2007), namely, a western worldview that opposes a modern (and postmodern) West and a mythical East. This imagined East becomes a repository for alternative lifestyles, worldviews, and practices....