Supreme Master Ching Hai International
Supreme Master Ching Hai International is the corporate entity behind Guanyin Famen / Quan Yin Method. It is affiliated with World Peace Media, Oceans of Love Entertainment, Supreme Master Television, and several cable television series, all groups and businesses established by Ching Hai. Her organisation runs a string of vegetarian restaurants around the world, some of which sell her merchandise.
In late 2008 Ching Hai launched a media campaign in Australia and New Zealand asking people to "Be Green, Go Veg, Save the Planet". Veganism, clean energy, and tree planting were promoted as a solution to climate change and pollution. The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association also made submissions to the Garnaut Climate Change Review advocating large cuts to livestock production.
According to political scientist Patricia M. Thornton at the University of Oxford, the Ching Hai World Society's heavy reliance on the internet for text distribution, recruitment and information-sharing, marks the group as a transnational "cybersect."
The source of wealth behind the group's charitable efforts and its media empire is a mystery, according to Thornton. Like the Qigong organisations that came to the fore in China in the 1980s and 1990s, Suma Ching Hai International adopted the structure of a business enterprise early on.
Much of the media produced by Suma Ching Hai International is heavily self-referential and promotional, according to Thornton, and aims to "build a public record of recognition for group activities." In 1998 the organization staged a concert for donating to several prominent children's foundations in the U.S., while highlights of the event were captured in a coffee-table book. Ching Hai has had local authorities in various countries declare particular dates "Supreme Master Ching Hai Day."
Read more about this topic: Ching Hai, Operations
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