Chinese Religious Parades as Intangible Heritage: Community, State, and Participatory Diversity in Japan and Malaya

Abstract Religious parades have moved from the margins of “folklore” to the center of intangible cultural heritage ( ICH ) policy. Drawing on multi-sited fieldwork (2023–2025) across Japan and Malaya, this article argues that Chinese religious processions function as performative public spheres in which diversity emerges not through dialogue but also through shared ritual labor. We identify two modalities—community-led parades (e.g., Kuala Lumpur’s Sin Sze Si Ya procession, Yokohama’s Guandi Temple festivals) and state-led heritage formats (e.g., Johor Bahru Chingay, Hirado Koxinga commemorations)—and show how each cultivates distinct but convergent forms of participatory diversity. Community-led festivals produce belonging through apprenticeship, embodied competence, and intimate co-presence, drawing in participants such as Sikh assistants, Hindu neighbors, and Japanese volunteers. State-led heritage, while framed for tourism and multicultural display, paradoxically de-essentializes ethnic categories, allowing South Asians to march as “Hokkien” or Shinto priests to officiate Chinese rites. Across cases, ritual performance—not consensus—grounds pluralism. We propose “participatory diversity” as a framework for understanding ICH as a performative public sphere rooted in action, etiquette, and religious co-presence. Safeguarding, therefore, should prioritize apprenticeships, ritual governance, and embodied practice rather than abstract dialogue. Chinese religious parades in East Asian port cities illustrate how heritage reshapes identities and transforms strangers into neighbors.