The comparison of religious nonprofit organizations between mainland China and Taiwan: A comparative case study based on Tzu Chi

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations in mainland China have been increasing at an amazing rate in the past two decades, and the religious sector is now organized to actively participate in providing social services as well. Religious NPOs in both mainland China and Taiwan follow rather different developmental paths. Why do they follow dissimilar paths? I suggest that the different institutional environments shape religious nonprofit sectors and influence their developmental trajectories. In this thesis, I use a Buddhist charity –Tzu Chi– as a comparative case study and propose three factors to explain the different developmental trajectories between Taiwan and mainland China.