Title: The EURO-TAO

ISBN: 9780984209170

Author: Thorsten Pattberg

Author Sort Name: Pattberg, Thorsten

Language: English

Publisher: LoD Press, New York

Original Publication Date: May 10, 2016

Print Length: 51 pages

Category: Religion & Spirituality/Comparative Religion

Find 'The EURO-Tao' elsewhere on the web:

Link to Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1553665065

Link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0984209174

Link to Author's Page: https://thorstenjpattberg.weebly.com/my-work.html

Link to Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/TJPattberg

Link to Social Media: https://linktr.ee/ThorstenJPattberg

Link to Wikipedia: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Thorsten_J._Pattberg

Link to Google Sites: https://tjpattberg.wordpress.com/euro-tao/

Link to Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNNilVrnn2p/

Link to Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/b7u5Hia0ySY

STAR WARS is TAOISM

We’ve mentioned Taoist themes entering Europe’s mainstream through US entertainment products –for example through the global (Hollywood) film industry –with titles such as ‘Kung-Fu Panda’ or ‘The Matrix’ trilogy (both feature Taoist philosophy). But there is another, very powerful multi-billion dollar industry that needs to be mentioned here: the game industry.

Chinese epics such as Journey to the West are increasingly represented in computer games. And those games are a global business. The (Japanese) Dragonball franchise is a case in point: Its demigod-hero, “Goku,” is a boy version of Sun Wukong, China’s “Monkey King.” Sun, or Goku, besides being a favorite of Buddha, is a Taoist immortal. Kids love his superpowers. But even in card- and board games do we find Taoist themes. The world’s largest trading cards developer, (US) Wizards of the Coast, in 1999 released a ‘Three Kingdoms’ expansion set to is Magic, the Gathering franchise that featured ‘Taoist Hermits’ and ‘Taoist Mystics’. The world’s largest board games developer, (UK) Games Workshop, in 2003 introduced to its Warhammer 40k universe a new “highly advanced, technological” super-race of “Chinese soldiers”-looking space invaders on their quest for “unifying” the galaxy. Their name: TAU.

And finally, how could we possibly end this section on a higher note (or on a lower, if you’re a party-pooper) than with the world’s most spectacular (multi-billion dollars) film/game/toys franchise and triple trilogy space epic –George Lucas’s STAR WARS (now owned by Disney). In it, superhuman heroes/anti-heroes talk about ‘the Force’ and expound on ‘the Jedi Way’, absolutely and forever indebted to the way of the Tao.