Wong Tai Sin Temple: Social Functions’ Change and Rebirth in Modern Society Essay

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Pages: 7

Wong Tai Sin Temple: Social Functions’ Change and Rebirth in Modern Society
Abstract
Wong Tai Sin Temple, located in Wong Tai Sin district of Kowloon in Hong Kong, was established in 1921. As one of the most important Taoist Architecture, the social function of Wong Tai Sin Temple has experienced some changes from the basic religious function, which protect the temple to survive under British colonial rule and promote the development of Taoism in the modern society. This paper provides an analysis of how the Wong Tai Sin Temple developed its social functions to realize the rebirth in modern society and try to find some suggestions for other religious architecture in China.
Keywords
Wong Tai Sin Temple, religious architecture, social
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The meeting and ceremony in Wong Tai Sin temple are also based on the veneration to Wong Tai Sin rather than do some complex programs to attract sponsors and visitors. In fact, these real Taoist ceremonies will attract more visitors, because the public will pay more attention to the scared and traditional ceremonies instead of the commercial events.
Charitable Function---Religious architecture as a charitable organization
Sik Sik Yuen is a good example for the modernization transformation of religious temples in Hong Kong. During the process, charity was the intermediary agent of transformation. They developed charity to realize the temple’s management and Sik Sik Yuen has not only become the largest religious charity in Hong Kong, but also the most influential Taoist architecture in Lingnan area.
There are some features about Sik Sik Yuen’s charity. First is the corporation management. To facilitate administration and management, the Yuen in 1965 registered itself as a limited company of charitable nature in Hong Kong and was granted the exemption of adding the word “Limited” to the organization’s name, which promoted the systematism and ordering of charity in Wong Tai Sin temple. It is also convenient for the publics to supervise the operation of