Hong Kong Folk Religions Project (2022-2023 )

The disappearance and the missing of knowledge of Hong Kong Folk Religions are believed to speed up in the coming centuries due to a variety of reasons, including losing attention to the younger generation, fast-growing of western new folk religious practices etc.

Folk Religion in Hong Kong encompasses a large range of traditional Chinese religious practices, including Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, etc. The concepts and methods of worshiping different “Shen (神, known as God or Goddess)” can vary a lot in different practices and locations. There are more than 200 temples and a hundred kinds of “Shen” in Hong Kong.

However, there is not any proper documentation clearly recording or categorizing different types of Folk Religions in Hong Kong. Academic research about Hong Kong Folk Religion is also scarce. The knowledge of these “Shen” and religious practices are fragmentized and shared by distinct small groups of people by word of mouth. For instance, some “Shen” had already been lost in history long ago as they were no longer worshiped by anyone.

It is important to raise the public’s attention towards the Hong Kong Folk Religions. Otherwise some Hong Kong Folk Religions may only be seen and understood through old photos in the coming future.

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鵝頸橋打小人 Villain Hitting (Selected Works)
2022
Photography

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灣仔洪聖古廟 Wan Chai Hung Shing Temple (Selected Works)
2022
Photography