Page 66 - A Study of Traditional Chinese Religions in Malaysia: The Decline and the Path Towards Revitalization

Based on Koh’s experience, it can be concluded that his commitment to Taoism and
the Taoist religious practices has strongly influenced his parents and children in their decision

to embrace the religion.

4.3.3 Importance of family’s approval of religious conversion

The respondents were each asked the question, “Do you feel that your family’s approval of
your religious conversion is important for you?” This is a question that serves to ascertain
whether the views of the respondents’ family members on the religious conversion of the

respondents matter to the respondents. The question was also asked with the aim of
obtaining any input by the respondents regarding the extent to which acceptance and any
support were given by the family members in the journey of religious conversion. Among the

respondents, the responses given by John and Helen are significant to be highlighted in
terms of their attachment to traditional values of filial piety.

For John, his response indicates that family approval of his religious conversion is
important - “Yes, family approval and blessing are very important for me…”. This could be
due to the belief that the religion that John converts to should allow him to fulfill the duty of

being the only son in the family, i.e. to “hold the joss sticks and pray to (the parents) the
Buddhist/Taoist way after they have passed away”. Hence, John’s parents showed more
approval for him to convert from Taoism to Buddhism in his second conversion experience,

compared to their lack of approval for his earlier decision to convert to Christianity. This
relates to the perception of Christianity as a non-traditional Chinese religion that might
prohibit ethnic Chinese Christians who have converted from traditional Chinese religions to

practice family traditions of filial piety in their family. Furthermore, filial piety is also evident in
Buddhist teachings as there are numerous examples of filial conduct that are written in the

Buddhist sutras (Ch'en 1968, 83)
A related study by (Chen 2006) on evangelical Christianity and the value system of
Chinese Christian immigrants found that filial piety and other ethnic cultural values are

transformed into “religious piety” whereby ethnic traditions are transformed and challenged
“through the language of religious discipleship rather than familial obligation” (Chen 2006,

597). Chen’s study focused on how Christian values are incorporated with Confucianism
towards achieving “moral agency rather than moral indebtedness” as a comparatively
“effective” means of educating children about traditional moral values. This form of integrating

Christian values into ethnic traditions is often seen to be a practice that moves away from
traditional practices such as filial piety.
In Helen’s case, she shared that one of the main reasons why she started to leave

the Christian group in which she was a member of was the increasing pressure given to her

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