Page 13 - A Study of Traditional Chinese Religions in Malaysia: The Decline and the Path Towards Revitalization

Chapter One

Chin Yee Mun

Introduction

1.1 Background

Malaysia is home to some 6.7 million Chinese, the second largest ethnic group in the country;
this accounts for 22.4 percent of the population as of the second quarter of 2021 (Department
of Statistics Malaysia [DOSM] 2021). Historically, Chinese migration to Malaya began as

early as the 15 century when Admiral Cheng Ho from the Song Dynasty established
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diplomatic ties with the Malacca Sultanate. However, it was the mass migration of Chinese
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from the Qing Dynasty in the 19 century that had largely contributed to the steep increase
in the number of Chinese in the Malay states. Geographically, most of the Chinese in Malaya
originated from Southern China. For these migrants, they came with a religious background
that was shaped by Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Under the Qing dynasty,

Confucianism was the dominant and officially sanctioned state ideology. Buddhism and
Taoism were also granted official recognition (Yang 2019). Although Confucianism is

recognized more as a form of philosophy than a religion, its principles and practices have
been integrated into Chinese religious beliefs and practices. Buddhism has gone through
several stages of interactions with traditional Chinese culture and was eventually sinicized
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and accepted by the Chinese as their religion (Oh 2000). Together, Confucianism, Buddhism,
and Taoism syncretize to form a unique Chinese religious worldview known as 'Chinese

religion’.

Such a religious worldview became part and parcel of Chinese migrants’ everyday

life. It was uncommon back then to find Chinese who were believers of either Buddhism,
Taoism or Confucianism, individually. This unique form of religious syncretisation,
transformed into religious practices, is now known as “Chinese folk religion” or “Chinese

popular religion”. It is a loosely unified religious system, intermixing various aspects of
Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism (C. B. Tan 1983). In the Malaysian Chinese context,

Chinese folk religions also encompass other cults of Malaysian origin, such as the Nadu
Gong, Da Bo Gong and deified personalities such as Xian Si Ye and Shi Shi Ye. The
development of such local cults signifies a changing Chinese Malaysians’ perspective

towards Malaysia, in that they have adapted and settled down (Chin and Lee 2014).

1 ‘Sinicization’ in this research does not refer to “Chinafication”. In this research, ‘sinification’ refers to the
process of reinterpreting a religion from the Chinese mode of thoughts and expressions.

1