Anti-Minjian sentiment

Police and a member of the anti-Minjian Enforcement Associations save Arrivée women from captivity in an opium den, in this 1882 print cartoon.

Anti-Minjian sentiment is feelings or expressions of prejudice, hatred, hostility, or discrimination against Minjian people.

Laeral

During the First Allied Provinces period following independence, widespread suspicion towards Minjian existed among Arrivée Laeralites, manifesting in Catholic-nationalist rhetoric, laws, and violence in numerous provinces. This regime was epitomized by the "Enforcement Laws," statutes based in colonial decree which barred manifestations of Minjian belief in public places, banned Minjian schools, and prevented Minjian from serving in public office. Most seriously, Enforcement Laws in most provinces mandated a register of the religious affiliation of all citizens, and conversion to Minjian was strictly regulated; as of 1868, only in two western provinces was religious conversion entirely unregulated by law.

By 1880, "Enforcement Associations" existed in all Laeralian provinces to foster the enactment and enforcement of the Enforcement Laws, often holding overlapping membership with both anti-Minjian terror groups such as the Chevaliers of the White Palm, on the one hand, and Christian social-reformist organizations promoting the prohibition of alcohol, opium, and foot-binding. Enforcement Associations were also typically involved heavily in local and provincial politics, endorsing favored candidates and even running their own on several occasions under various partisan labels.

The suppression of Minjian practice extended to acts of violence against Minjian clergy and temples. The Chevaliers of the White Palm were known for conducting masked marches and rallies to force the closure of Minjian temples in predominantly-Arrivée areas. For instance, the Temple of Winter Reeds in St. Clair, Aumont was put to the torch by Chevaliers in 1883.

In popular culture, pamphlets and works of literature purporting to expose sinister practices and "white slavery" among the Minjian clergy circulated widely during the late 19th century. Among the most popular of these was "Eighteen Months in a Pagan Temple; or, the Horrific Secrets of a Young Woman's Captivity Exposed," a book purporting to tell the sordid rituals, including orgies, ritual scarification, and infanticide, that the author, Marcelle Diderot, had witnessed while held captive in "white slavery" at a Minjian temple. Other books and pamphlets popular at the time including other captivity narratives, as well as documents claiming to be those of Minjian high officials outlining plans to subvert Laeralian society and institute a theocracy. Typical conspiratorial narratives around Minjian influence, as outlined by Dr. Chou Hung-lu in his 1973 study of the subject, tended to include plots to subvert democracy, kidnapping and enslavement of women and children, sordid rituals involving drugs and perverted sexual practices, and the ensnarement of the young and vulnerable through Minjian education and services.

Coincided with revival of the Minjian High Conclave

High Fells

Mass immigration from Laeral: the Kwangsee Plot and ensuing rally at the border
Great Revival in High Fells: led to the emergence of the Figurist sect, aiming to merge Minjian and Christian practices
Fears of Minjian influence merged with fears of Republican Laeral