My Place – Disappearing Culture

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

Getting out of Butterworth for almost one decade has had several effects on me. The timing has given me an escape from this “cultures confluence” town, an experience of a panic-stricken capital’s life, and a foreign work culture where the east meet the west, but winning memorable moments in return. Technically, culture diversity is what one should use to describe this conservative, yet multifaceted township in the northern region of Malaysia. Indeed, Prai probably will get far more attention for the fast-growing number of place of worship rather than the diversity of its cultures.

Not counting those remarkable and already popular tourist spots, small prayer sheds are mushrooming all over the Chinese residential areas usually started from a family size cater for tens of local residents then slowly develop into fairly bigger networking after generations.

There is no standard ratio for a temple in proportional to the deliberate population. Here, you can find one stretch of temples, Taoism temple, Buddhism temple, and Hindus temple line along the same street forming a cultural landscape.

Though, the number is growing so is the temple’s size, and there is no evidence of reducing in the future. Despite the effort to push for a right track, temple people are gaining support from influential parties and their voices reach every corner of the society. More awkward pleads about “temple right” are likely to happen down the road as the result of this disingenuous, politic pitch which lure voters to accept their political aspiration.

So far, this is not the sign of growing interest in religion among Chinese here; the temple’s social practices have least impact on the country’s religion-related tourism market. We maybe a cultural rich society but we are lagged far behind when promoting the cultures to the world. 

In contemporary times, preserving tradition is no more as a way to live in a fulfilling intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual life. The crowd gathers at the temple has other connections; the temple now is more like a place to pursue common interest as those peculiar interest groups such as a reading group, movie group, and etc. Unsurprisingly, temple group is not formed in favor of intellectual pursuit, it is for those who live in the same economy boundary, with the same business interest.

Festivals hold in the temple still are rich in colorful articles, prayer artifacts, craftsmanship and religious rituals as well as foods stalls to fill the starving visitors. Chinese street opera, once the performance complements Chinese festivals in the earlier era, is no longer in sight. What replacing this unique Chinese culture is the modern dance and singing show.

As bad as things may be, some festival doers employ erotic performing artists to attract more “devotees” to their shed of modern worship. In this bizarre era of enjoyment, the temple committees know to lure outsiders to the core is to provide instant gratification in entertainment. For sure, not that the cackling din of Chinese opera that can be almost hurting the ear.

I grew up in a typical Chinese family. My family members are Taoism devotees by tradition, and practice Chinese customs passed from generation to generation not knowing exactly what intangible principles behind these doings.

I agree that some customs do encourage; however many are non-value added or may be harmful. Some customs such as burning joss-stick and joss-paper are inevitable though we cannot relate the practices with real life but without them the festival is a colourless existence. I enjoy having Chinese New Year eve’s dinner with the whole family and the spirit of getting every member of the family at the dining table.  However, I condemned those crooked mediums that tempt gullible devotees to their trap.

Not every religious devotee acts the same way their compassion to religious is fallaciously appeals to popularity and quantity. It is common for a devotee to pray in several temples in the same city.

What is next? For a divine place to find a market niche and globalize in this modern world, the size must be enormous and the property must be architecturally unique and artistic, and the devotees must be VIPs and in a vast number.

Nonetheless, one area all devotees can take heart for, is our society aware of its (culture) importance and go all-out to shake off those negative images from further hurting it. The media are even-handed all reports about the temple’s activities and condemn deeply to perpetrators who messed up the tradition. It may take years and years to reinstate the temple‘s reputation, but it is certainly worth it.

Wai Ping Lee/Dec 2011