Vol. 2 PERSPECTIVES ON KOREAN MUSIC Fall 2011 Big Gods and Hidden Spectacle: The Daoist jiao ritual of Cheung Chau, Hong Kong 1 Frederick Lau University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa “Attending a chiao [jiao] ritual is an experience that can be exhilarating or a lengthy ordeal of physical deprivation, depending upon the mood of the Taoists and their expertise” (Saso 1989:75) “One of the effects of colonialism was that until as late as the seventies, Hong Kong did no realize it could have a culture” (Abbas 1997:6) Introduction Tourists who visited Hong Kong—the so-called Pearl of the Orient— in the past, would probably have visited many of the territory’s well-known landmarks such as the Victoria Peak, Tiger Balm Garden, Aberdeen fishing village and the floating seafood restaurant, the night market at Temple Street, and the bargain outlets at Stanley Village on the south side of Hong Kong Island. Taken as a whole, these tourist sites exude the unique quality and character of a modern city that prides itself on its own blend of East-West culture and as a premier financial and commercial hub in Asia. However, in the period before and after Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Hong Kong’s local culture and traditions, once considered a marginal culture of impurity by both the colonial and Chinese governments, were catapulted into the limelight as the city’s valuable and vital 1 I would like to thank the symposium organizers Drs. Ju-Yong Ha and R. Anderson Sutton for inviting me to present a paper on Chinese ritual. It is my pleasure to share my work on a subject that was an important part of my childhood. What I am presenting is something that I knew, observed, and participated until I was a teenager. My position as a cultural “insider” then and an observer and analyst now has provided me with unique vantage points. I hope that my findings can further our common goals in exploring questions about traditional ritual practices in a changing world.