Description

Festivals are an integral part of our lives. Starting from life experience, this lecture attempts to explain what the speaker has seen and heard in the process of moving from armchair to the field since 1975, and at the same time discuss issues and thoughts arising from long-term participant observation and cross-regional comparison.

The Jiao in Hong Kong is not only an important religious festival. For different regional communities, this is an important ritual tool for defining the community’s geographical and population boundaries and establishing ethnic identity. However, from the perspective of long-term follow-up observation, the rituals, content, and interpretation of the local communities’ Jiao festival are constantly adjusted due to changes in the macro-environment and micro-ecology. Therefore, the speaker attempts to use this opportunity to reorganize his half a century field experience from the process of observation and thinking, on the one hand, he will reminisce about the nostalgic past, and on the other hand, he will provide the audience with an insight into the long-term dynamic religious festival landscape of the regional communities in Hong Kong.

25 October 2025 (Saturday)

Celebrating Festivals and Divine Birthdays Through Daoist Rituals in Hong Kong Temples

Speaker: Professor LAI Chi Tim, Professor, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Date: 2 November 2025 (Sunday)

Half a Century in the Festival Field: A Self-Reflection in Hong Kong Jiao Festival

Speaker: Professor CHOI Chi Cheung, Adjunct Professor, Department of History, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Conducted in Cantonese. Free admission by reservation. First come, first served. Registration for the talk: Please visit https://cloud.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/webform/view.php?id=13714206 for registration. Seats are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.