While reading this chapter of God in Chinatown, I saw just how much research Kenneth Guest put into this book. Obviously it is impossible to write a informative book without extensive research, but the statistics and other information of the Chinese immigrant population were quite detailed.
The one thing that surprised me the most was the fact that there are several religious institution that exist in Chinatown and many Chinese immigrants (both first and second generation) are part of these religious communities. Growing up in Hong Kong, religion was never really made to be a big deal. I learned most of what I know about Christianity and other religions (aside from Buddhism and Taoism, but I still only knew very little about those) here in New York. So it was very surprising to me to see that many who are Chinese are religious and not only in Buddhism or Taoism.
Another thing that I find hard to believe is Master Lu and his so called “relationship” with the deity He Xian Jun (who I have never heard of). It seems like he’s manipulating other people’s faith for selfish gains. A lot of people claim to be great or connected to some sort of greatness but few ever are. While some people may completely believe his story about how this god is watching out for him and gives him a way to make money for all these years, I find it a bit on the fiction side. As much as I don’t believe his story, I do think that his temple is able to give a sense of security to immigrants who recently arrived in the country, just as Lady of Guadalupe were able to provide that sense of security for her followers. This temple may also restrict the immigrants from reaching out to other communities to learn English or meet new people. It seems like it creates an invisible bubble around them and cause just as much harm as good.
Overall this chapter was very interesting and informative, I learned quite a few things about Chinatown that I did not know previously. Also I would like to point out that I despise Chinese translated into English with a passion. It makes it incredibly hard to understand and very hard to pronounce.
