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Accepted Paper:
"Now you can find it all on the internet": spelling out secret knowledge in Taiwan
Stéphanie Homola
(CNRS, French Research Institute on East Asia)
Based on the case of divinatory arts in contemporary Taiwan, this paper examines changing patterns in the circulation of traditional knowledge as former "secret knowledge" become increasingly available on social media.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines changing patterns in the transmission of traditional knowledge in contemporary Taiwan, based on the case of divinatory arts. In post-war Taiwan, Mainlander practitioners played a vital role in transmitting horoscopy techniques to native Taiwanese, mostly through a narrow and secretive mode of transmission based on the personal, elective relationship between master and disciple. Starting at the end of the 1980s, Taiwanese practitioners launched a popularization process that questioned traditional modes of knowledge transmission and reformulated concepts and theories to make them fit modern societies' expectations. This process went a step further more recently with the boom of the Internet and social media. Based on a mixed methodology combining anthropological fieldwork among practitioners of horoscopy in Taiwan and digital ethnography, this paper examines tensions in the vulgarization process of esoteric knowledge. In the past, the development of printing technologies and publishing industries at various times constituted both a challenge and an opportunity for the dissemination of esoteric knowledge and practices. As they increase the speed and outreach of knowledge circulation, information and communication technologies constitute another disruptive innovation likely to redefine the dynamic of esoteric practices. This paper examines to which extent they threaten, challenge, or nourish the strategic disclosure or concealment that characterizes esoteric practices, and how they redefine the social basis of both masters and disciples in contemporary societies.