Q.R. CODES OF DEITIES: Digital medias @ the service of religion in Taiwan

During the last fifty years, as a result of economic and technological development, Taiwan has evolved from an agricultural into a full-fledged industrial society. Because of this change, cities and urban agglomerations have replaced the traditional village setting which marked the daily and religious life of Taiwanese. To the present, Taiwan Media-Tek ranks fourth in the world and digitalization is a trend taken for granted in the island, especially among younger generations. Taiwan remains yet a home for a variety of old, traditional religious expressions. Customarily, as guardians of tradition, religious organizations are apprehensive to novelty; they even resist changes.

The present paper will illustrate initiatives of some temples and shrines to respond proactively to the novelty of social communication in Taiwan. To cater to the needs of a “digitalized” generation, the institutions have integrated QR code deities; temples and shrines are on Facebook, Line, Instagram, and other applications enabling believers to experience, enjoy and share their religiosity in real time. By these practices, they are redefining, re-inventing, extending, and transplanting old religious space into the universe of millennials and android generation. They are engaging traditional and popular religions into a process of inculturation, adaptation, transplantation of religious space in the modern digitalized culture.