Why foreign-born immigrants are fond of participating ethnic religious festivals in Hong Kong? How such festivity gives rise to the continuity of an immigrant community and its organizations? The study of immigrant organizations in Hong Kong observes its bottleneck in recent decades, partly due to the difficulty for outsiders to gain access to the community resources and activities; and/or it is also a reason that such organizations entitle themselves not with terms such as "tongxianghui" or sometimes, they wisely hide themselves in the name of sound businesses - and are neglected by historians or social scientists.

This study entails ethnographic accounts of an urban festival Yuelan, and argues that current understanding of immigrant organizations in Hong Kong remains in old...[ Read more ]

Why foreign-born immigrants are fond of participating ethnic religious festivals in Hong Kong? How such festivity gives rise to the continuity of an immigrant community and its organizations? The study of immigrant organizations in Hong Kong observes its bottleneck in recent decades, partly due to the difficulty for outsiders to gain access to the community resources and activities; and/or it is also a reason that such organizations entitle themselves not with terms such as "tongxianghui" or sometimes, they wisely hide themselves in the name of sound businesses - and are neglected by historians or social scientists.

This study entails ethnographic accounts of an urban festival Yuelan, and argues that current understanding of immigrant organizations in Hong Kong remains in old form social role as agents of adaptation. Conventional discussion does not tell us how these organizations are coping with new order of democracy and facilitating the ethnic economy in present day. This study introduces a case in East Kowloon to supplement previous literature and shed new light on the topic from a religious perspective. The festival of Yuelan in Ngau Tau Kok area shows a high correlation between electoral politics and religious engagement. It has a history of over four decades and could plausibly testify to the degree of civil development and the intensity of identity of the immigrant community at large.

The organization is revealed as an example to contest how immigrants, as ethnic minority, could exemplify their identity network to maintain a sustainable economic and political scale. The findings add a crucial chapter to current literature in global theory of immigrants with a hope to encourage further investigation of festivals in Hong Kong in political and urban context. It goes beyond conventional approach in history and anthropology, and illustrates the possible meanings of festivals in Hong Kong.