China Exclusive: Millennial temple's advertising for new media talents gets viral

A 1,500-year-old Buddhist temple has become a hit online after an advertisement recruiting new media talents received more than a million clicks and 4,000 applications worldwide within five days.

The advertisement, which combines music, cartoons and humorous wording, was posted by Donghua Zen Temple in Shaoguan City of south China's Guangdong Province. It offers eight posts, including application operation, user interface design, new media communication and IT maintenance.

It was first posted five days ago on the temple's official account at Wechat, China's most popular social network and went viral through retweets.

"Half a month in the forest relaxing your nerves and half a month in the city. Easy, flexible, full of freedom, what are you waiting for? Our Buddha needs you!" the advertisement reads.

"The response is far more than our expectation," said Liu Fen, 35, one of the masterminds behind the advertisement. "A new mail came within one or two minutes."

Wang Yingyao, 28, who is a freelance copywriter for Chanel and Lancome, is one of the applicants that include overseas Chinese from Italy and Russia. The salary will follow the market price, according to the temple.

"I was attracted by their innovative approach and I personally am interested in Buddha's wisdom," said Wang. He said the advertisement is direct, simple and not mysterious, totally different from his impression about temples.

Liu, a layman Buddhist at the temple, said most of the 12 staff at the temple's Culture Department are young people, who feel the old approach to promote Buddhism are not adaptable to the mobile Internet era.

"Young people nowadays do not like reading bulky books or answering strangers' calls," said Liu, who worked in a cell phone manufacturing factory in Shenzhen City before she came to the temple half a year ago.

"Time is fragmented now. If we want them to better understand Buddhism, we need to build new media platforms to serve them," she said.

The temple outsourced the cartoon and scenario application to make the advertising more professional and appealing, according to Li.

Those newcomers will help us build three technical platforms: a quality official website, a more efficient Wechat official account and a social network for real interaction for Buddhism followers, said Li.

"Promoting Buddhism is not limited in forms," said Li."If we want the young people to get in touch with Buddhism, we need to use the language and approach that they can accept, otherwise we will lose them."

Master Huike, head of the temple's culture department, knows nothing about apps or user interfaces but he supports his young colleagues' innovation.

"The government advocates the rejuvenation of traditional culture and Buddhism is part of it," said Huike. "As a temple, we respond to the government's call and adapt to the development of times."

"Whatever tools we are using, the core will never change," he said."Spread the goodness and kindness of the Buddhism all over the world." Endi