Transmission

Abstract Chapter 3 investigates the educational and class-based differences in how Chinese American households transmit the liyi dimensions of Chinese Popular Religion and Confucianism. Working-class households tend to pass down the practices of Chinese Popular Religion based on fate, luck, and qi, whereas professional households tend to affirm Confucian thought to match their rational, scientific worldviews. Nearly all respondents’ parents practiced elements of Chinese Popular Religion, most notably venerating ancestors, adhering to fengshui principles of qi, and celebrating Lunar New Year. For working-class families, these practices included belief in supernatural realities and the efficacy of practices to bring about well-being and good fortune. Chinese American professional families saw these rituals as secular customs and maintained them for different reasons: to instill family responsibility through ancestor veneration, maintain good energy via fengshui, and celebrate their heritage through Lunar New Year.