Abstract:The Mekong River Delta is located in the southernmost part of Vietnam. It has been commonly known as the place of coexistence and multicultural exchanges between four ethnic groups Viet，Hoa（Chinese），Khmer and Cham. Since the late seventeenth century，Southern Chinese immigrants accompanied by their unique cultural identities crossed over the sea to settle down in the region. After three hundred years of struggle and development，the Hoa communities built totally 71 Tianhou temples in the region in which Chaozhou temples are the most popular and diverse. Under the religious rituals，the Hoa communities acquire the communitas with the supernatural forces，through which they set up and consolidate the internal links and moral education among the community. Being strongly stimulated by the social development，Tian Hou belief has moved on its own enhancement，becoming more open to absorb the wisdoms of other peoples as well as ready to widespread the faith to form a multi-ethnic cultural exchange platform. This paper is to analyze the field survey data under the perspective of cultural studies to learn the spreading and the typical characteristics of Tian Hou belief in the Mekong River Delta. At the same time，this paper also primarily uses the popular cultural theories such as hierarchy of needs and functionalism to explore the cultural changes and the implication of the belief in different periods. The research expects to show how the Chinese in Vietnam have widespread the belief and made adjustments to be well-adapted to attain the dual targets：integration and identity preservation.
收起
京公网安备11010202008212号