Between the Sacred and Secular

The Role of Chinese Popular Deities in Creating Thirdspaces in Chinese Restaurants of Santiago de Chile

Bibliographic Data

ID4816239
AuthorsC Chan (0000-0001-9879-5144, Academy of Christian Humanism University), Ríos María Elvira (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile)
Year2020
Volume16
Issue2
Pages162-186
Publication date2020-03-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMaterial Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1743-2200 • E-ISSN: 1751-8342
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17432200.2020.1722906
OpenAlexW3010771343
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited31

Material manifestations of the Chinese popular deities, Guanyin and Guan Gong, are ubiquitous in Cantonese-Chinese restaurants globally. Yet studies of Chinese popular religion among overseas Chinese have seldom focused on the diverse significance of these deities to Chinese migrants, nor the use of restaurant-spaces to house these deities. This article examines the presence and powers of such deities in Chinese restaurants of Santiago de Chile. We seek to understand how the presence or absence of Guanyin and Guan Gong figures specifically shapes migrant Chinese restauranteurs and workers’ experience of the restaurants as particular kinds of protected, sacred/secular spaces, and how these deities might also affectively shape the restauranteurs’ ways of being and inhabiting the restaurants. Based on semi-structured interviews with Chinese shopkeepers and workers, observation and photography of the spatial organization of 26 restaurants and the aesthetics of their deities, we argue that these restaurants are more than just their primary sources of livelihood. We argue that they approximate Soja’s “thirdspaces” (1996), which on the one hand mediate their interactions with the city and its other residents, and on the other hand mediate relationships between humans in the earthly world and deities in the “other” parallel world

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Geography · Guan · Humanities · Livelihood · Sociology · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Gender Studies · History · Japanese History and Culture · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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