Chapter 5 examines the complexity of the religious institutions in Chinatown. Although its nature is focused on a condensed location, many of these characteristics are also embodied in the cases we have studied throughout the class. The Fuzhounese involvement of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother procession is reminiscent of the Italian Harlem’s procession of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. The undocumented status of the immigrants living in Chinatown is reminiscent of those who immigrated from Mexico. Even ethnic division is seen in the reading, for the Fuzhounese is still a separate group from the other ethnic groups in the Transfiguration Church despite attempts to bring them together, much like the Lubavitch and African American communities in Crown Heights, though the former example is not as extreme. Even the Muslim Day Parade ( La Antorcha as well) is remembered whilst reading this chapter, for many small processions take place in the Lower East Side that may not amount to the St. Patrick’s Day parade, but serve as awareness of their presence in the community.
Chinatown is a microcosm that shows how immigrants adapt to American opportunity in order to advocate their existence through a religious institution. However, that also means that the issues that arise as a result are magnified within the community. Thus, it is important that there is an increased understanding of the nature of the immigrants that arrive so that there can be an avoidance to the problem. One measure that needs to be reconsidered is the way religious organizations are registered, for many are multi-faceted to be put under one category. Additionally, there are many institutions that remain undocumented in record and on the map. In order to flourish, there must be a more accessible way to make all of the institutions official. Then, it might be easier to estimate and study the undocumented immigrants that belong to them.
