Before our study of Chinatown I never payed much attention to it nor to the religious communities that thrive there simply because I never visited that area. Before reading this book I didn’t know which religion would dominate Chinatown. However, after coming to Queens College and after going on our Flushing tour I was surprised to see how dominate Christianity was among Chinese immigrants in New York City. However, now I remember the countless stories I read and saw of missionaries in China. As a result, I was surprised that there were still popular Buddhist and Daoist temples located in Chinatown because I expected the book to spotlight on Christian churches in Chinatown.
However, I’m going to focus on what all these places of worship in Chinatown have in common whether they are Buddhist, Daoist, or Christian and that is they help Chinese immigrants who come to New York City retain a familiar connection to their homeland. This is evident because congregations from each church reflect certain immigration patterns from China. This is similar to the Italians in Italian Harlem because the familiar domus centered community in their church helped preserve the values upheld by the Italian community which was associated with their homeland.
One particular temple in this chapter which shows another example of a religious community helping immigrants in New York City keep a connection to their homeland was the He Xian Jun Buddhist Temple. This book states the founder for this temple was a man who called himself Master Lu who claimed to be divinely inspired and have a direct connection to G-d. However, he does seem like a suspicious character supported by many questionable actions on Master Lu’s part but that’s another story. Master Lu helps his congregation maintain ties to China by sending money back to China to help build temples, regularly making visits to the congregation back in China, but also by providing services to the new and unfortunately sometimes illegal Chinese immigrants who come to New York City.
