Believers have released fish for making merit for centuries. The CCP is now campaigning against the alleged release of mineral water. Why?
by Gladys Kwok
Hong Kong pro-CCP media and netizens are consistently ridiculing Buddhist believers in mainland China who allegedly practice life release by emptying bottles of mineral water into rivers. It seems that the campaign was started in Guangdong, where photographs were taken by hostile observers and posted on Chinese social media.
Life release is a very common Buddhist practice. Near Buddhist shrines all over the world fishes and birds are sold and believers liberate them by releasing fishes into the sea, lakes, or rivers, or letting birds flying in the air. Tibetan Buddhists and others also buy and save animals destined to slaughter.
Releasing mineral water, however, is unheard of. As the story goes, a rumor spread among some Buddhist believers that certain brands of Chinese mineral water contain microorganisms. Those who drink this kind of mineral waters, thus, inadvertently kill the small living beings. Emptying the bottles into rivers would thus be a form of life release.
The point is that there is no evidence that these bottled waters really contain microorganisms (indeed, they may be more common in tap water); hence the ridicule liberally poured on the believers.
Some netizens, however, are asking more serious questions. Is the story of releasing mineral water real? Why the campaign against the believers? Why is this campaign particularly consistent in Hong Kong?
Yes, there are pictures and videos of the mineral water release, but these can be easily fabricated with limited effort. If the story is true, it may be a purely local incident.
However, the comments in Hong Kong pro-CCP media and televisions, and some disseminated on social media and strangely resembling each other, helps us understanding why the incident serves the Party’s propaganda, if it has not been created by it.
One set of comments is that “xie jiao” or “cults” (whose repression is, for the time being, less strong in Hong Kong than it is in Mainland China) should be behind it. The mineral water has even been called “brainwashing water,” claiming that those releasing it are “brainwashed” by “cults.” However, nobody has been able to identify any “cults” or religious movements, of which there is no shortage in China, teaching that merit may be gained by releasing mineral water.
Even more dangerous comments insist that life release is a “feudal superstition,” which should be eliminated by the authorities. It is true that near large shrines the practice has been excessively commercialized, and that environmentalists have noted that sometimes alien species are released and create ecological problems. While these are reasonable concerns, it is an entirely different matter to use the true or fabricated mineral water incident to attack a practice that has at least 1,700 years of history and perhaps prepare the ground for its prohibition by the government. Ultimately, even the case of mineral water is used as an opportunity to slander religion.
