The Confucian Moral Community of the Clan Association in the Chinese Diaspora: A Case Study of the Lung Kong Tin Yee Association

Yong Chen

doi:10.3390/rel13010030

Abstract

Using the Lung Kong Association as a case study, this article explores the cultural and socio-religious significance of the clan association in overseas Chinese societies. It argues that the Chinese diaspora has continually endeavored to utilize Confucian resources, via the clan association, to construct a “moral community” for the facilitation of their internal solidarity and external identity.

Highlights

The clan association plays a quintessential role in fostering communal solidarity in overseas Chinese communities
The second part of my empirical studies is based on my analysis of a series of video documents published on YouTube.com, with the title “The 22nd Pan American Lung Kong Tin Yee Association Convention, Meizhou Longgang Qinyi Zonggongsuo Di 22 Jie Daibiao Dahui 美洲龍岡親義總公所第22屆代表大會”
While my field trips to the above-mentioned four clan associations focus on an ethnographical observation and examination of the spaces, symbols, and discourses, my video-textual analysis of the video documents is intended for a close investigation of the rituals and ritualization during the 22nd fraternity convention of the Lung Kong Association, held from 22 September to 25, 2019, in Toronto, Canada

Summary

Introduction

The clan association plays a quintessential role in fostering communal solidarity in overseas Chinese communities. Ethnographical, and video-textual analysis, this article sets out to explore the cultural and socio-religious mechanism of the clan association with regard to the construction of a “Confucian moral community” in the Chinese diaspora. 44) defined religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them” Drawing on this Durkheimian sense of religion, we can say that clan associations as “Confucian moral communities” have achieved historical and cultural and existential and religious significance in the Chinese diaspora. The clan association has proceeded to furnish a religious quality that provides meaning and identity to the Chinese immigrants who live outside their cultural domain per se

History and Function of the Clan Association in the Chinese Diaspora

The Clan Association as a Sacred Space and Its Symbolic Meaning

The Confucian Moral Community of the Lung Kong Association: A Case Study

Findings

Concluding Remarks