Page 21 - A Study of Traditional Chinese Religions in Malaysia: The Decline and the Path Towards Revitalization

organizations’ main weaknesses. Unlike TCR organizations, Christianity, and Islam
movements pro-actively proselytize their religions. They even go beyond proselytizing. There

is a mechanism within Christianity and Islam that stops Christians or Muslims from leaving
their religion - rules are created. For example, in Malaysia, Muslims practice endogamous
marriage. Thus, anyone who marries a Muslim must convert to Islam. There are also laws in

Malaysia that forbid non-Muslims to proselytize their religion to Muslims. All these initiatives
within these religions, as well as the lack of similar measures from TCR are causing the

increase in conversions out of TCR. In this context, TCR organizations (associations and
temples) will have to reconsider the need to take more proactive measures that would
counter the declining number of those who practice TCR.

Besides the micro and macro systems, an individual is also affected by the

occurrence that happens in his meso system. His meso system is shaped by his interactions
with the various components of his micro and macro systems. For instance, if his family is
not practicing TCR and his peers are encouraging him to embrace Christianity, and there is

no restriction or attempt from the TCR institutions to stop him, it is highly likely that he will
convert. Westernization, modernization and urbanization are also causing the Chinese to
reflect on their spiritual needs. These changes are causing the Chinese all over the world to

become individualistic and eventually less attached to their community’s traditions and
collective cultural traits. They will consider their religiosity as a private matter. At the same,

matters related to religion are less prioritized especially when they have to mitigate the
challenges posted by the modern economy on them. Pragmatism takes over. Many
traditional religious values and practices have to be abandoned or simplified since they have

to deal with everyday bread and butter issues. As a result, Chinese families and other
institutions at the micro level are no longer able to perform their cultural and religious

identities’ effectively. At the same time, the act of converting to other religions, particularly
Christianity, is their way of expressing that they have changed and are adapting to a western-
modern culture. It is the outcome of “intellectualization” of religion. Again, Chinese people all

over the world are experiencing this phenomenon, including the Malaysian Chinese. In this
context, the Chinese are becoming “receptive” to other religions. Hall (2006) highlighted
receptivity as one of the main factors that are causing the Chinese to convert to Christianity.

1.4 The Research

Based on these reports, the decline of TCR is impending. Besides the technical factor (i.e.,

misreporting and misunderstanding of traditional Chinese religions by the Malaysian
authorities), conversion is the only other factor behind this phenomenon. Therefore, to
understand the decline, efforts to analyse the factors that contribute to the conversion must

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