Updated Monday, November 12, 2007 0:00 am TWN, By Joe Hung, Special to The China Post

Are young intellectuals ‘possessed’?

Exorcism presupposes the existence of evil spirits — call them ghosts, ghouls, or any other name you wish — who possess a believer in whatever form of religion or cult. According to the John Tung Foundation survey, close to 25 percent of the young intellectuals polled believe they are depressed because they are “under control of some unknown (supernatural) force.” Of them, 15 percent consider themselves possessed by evil spirits. The actual term used to describe the phenomenon is “ka tao yin” (卡到陰) in Mandarin which, however, must be read in Hoklo as “ka tio yim” to make sense. The Hoklo term that defies transcription into Chinese logograms literally means “getting occluded by some deceased persons.” Most Hoklo people popularly believe a person goes to “yin” or “yim,” which is “the world of darkness (hell or limbo),” when he dies. When that deceased person is not properly and duly worshipped or still holds some grudges — which he or she nursed when alive in this world — unsettled to satisfaction, he or she may cause any living person some trouble in revenge. That is “ka tao yin.” In the case of our younger intellectuals, the result is depression.

There are two ways to exorcise those who are possessed. One way is to appease the evil spirits and the other, to expel them. They may repent for whatever wrong they think they have done somebody, and the evil spirit will leave them alone of its own accord. But most young intellectuals nowadays rarely think they have done anything wrong. If anything goes wrong, they always blame anybody but themselves and refuse to take responsibility. They won’t repent. Consequently, it stands to reason that a Taoist priest must be asked to write a spell on a piece of yellow paper which is then burned to ashes that will be mixed with water and drunk, the purpose of the elixir being to expel the evil spirits. They may also carry the written spells with them all the time, lest they should remain in a cursed state for days or weeks to come.

All this is very un-Confucian. Chinese intellectuals, modern literati included but true believers in monotheist religions excluded, are agnostic. They are all Confucians, though they may not profess they are or practice in earnest China’s long-venerated religion. They doubt the existence and/or knowability of a god or any supernatural being or power. They are not atheists. They simply cannot force themselves to believe in the existence of God, as Christians believe there is, or Allah as Muslims do, for the simple reason that they do not know and they don’t bother to know. They act in keeping with the Confucian tradition.

Change seems to occur as Taiwan transforms itself into a postmodern society. Colleges and universities have mushroomed, and there is an oversupply of intellectual elite. One inevitable consequence is that many of the intellectuals in Taiwan do not deserve the name because they do not try to earn it. Instead, they take overdoses of “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” or Japanese anime pictures.

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