Berkley Center

Hong Kong, nicknamed “Asia’s World City,” is an eclectic region of cultures and traditions. Even its population’s faith is diverse and, although it is evident that Hong Kong residents’ faith is heavily influenced by Chinese civilization, it is difficult to point out which beliefs and traditions stand out as the most practiced.

Chinese folk religions and Daoism were already practiced when Buddhism, the first foreign religion, penetrated the Chinese Empire in the third century BCE. Today, the three appear to come together both in the creation of temples as well as in various religious practices. As a person foreign to these faiths, I found coming into contact with all of the different gods and buddhas, worshiped in Hong Kong, as a result of these intersections, to be a learning experience.

Frederick W. Mote wrote in his book, Intellectual Foundations of China, that the Chinese believe “spiritual” beings exist. However, the Chinese notion of the spirit or qi is different from that of other cultures. For the Chinese, the spirit of the deceased stays around for some time until it returns to nature. This suggests that the qi has the same qualities as other materials in the universe. The author comments, “In the vulgarized versions of this rather philosophical conception, spirits sometimes began to resemble ‘gods,’” a concept that is illustrated in the Buddhist notions of transmigration and karma.

Take for example the goddess of water Tin Hau or Ma Tzu. The legend says Tin Hau was originally a human being named Lin Moniang, born in the Song Dynasty (960 CE). It is said that Lin had the power to predict the weather and protect fishermen. One day, Lin’s father and brother’s boat began to sink, and while trying to rescue them, Lin drowned. After her death, Lin’s family believed that she ascended into tian (heaven) and became a goddess. Many sailors claim to have sighted the “Heavenly Queen” and that she has led them to safety multiple times. Because of this she was eventually recognized as a celestial being.

Tin Hau’s worship spread easily in Hong Kong, since it was primarily a fisherman’s village, before becoming a financial center. She is considered to be the Goddess of the Sea, a protector of Hong Kong’s fishermen, and there are currently over 60 temples dedicated to her. This April 19 we’ll even celebrate her birthday with a colorful and lively festival.

Another more evident example of the Buddhist influence on Chinese folk is the story of Miào Shàn. The story tells of a king who had three daughters and intended to marry all of them for his advantage. However, the youngest, Miào Shàn, refused to live this fate, so to punish her the king took her to a nunnery, expecting that she would dislike the experience and prefer being wed. Although she was given impossible tasks to complete, Miào successfully finished all of them, which led people to believe she had divine powers. The king did not like the fact that Miào had been successful and ordered the nunnery to be burned down and the people inside of it to be executed. Yet again, Miào escaped her father’s wishes and hid in another monastery.

Years later the king was diagnosed with an illness that could only be cured with medicine made from human eyes and arms. The king unknowingly got eyes and arms from his daughter who had become a bodhisattva (a nun who is ready to reach nirvana, but doesn’t because of her compassion for suffering beings) at the temple she fled to. This selfless act gives Miào Shàn the title of the Goddess of Mercy in Chinese folk religion. In Buddhism, it is believed she got her eyes and arms back because she was the reincarnation of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, with a thousand eyes and arms.

These legends increased the rationalism of Chinese folk and presented opportunities for the study of cosmogony. In his book Mote argues that religions in the West are more comfortable with believing in causality and blind trust, whereas Chinese cultures deal more with reason. Mote criticizes Western studies of religion that suggest that all “high” cultures eventually tend to monotheistic beliefs. Chinese folk does not accept that a “supergod” can be granted all the credit for our existence and thus rejects monotheism.

“It is difficult to identify religion in Hong Kong because many people do not recognize their practices as religious,” explains Joseph Bosco, an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Here, Protestantism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Sikhism coexist with Confucianism, Daoism, Chinese folk religions, and atheism. “Religion is thus overlooked in Hong Kong,” Dr. Bosco says, “Diversity and tolerance are the characteristics that most mark the Hong Kong religious landscape.”