From the Goddess Guanyin to Señor Santo Niño: Chinese and Filipino Restaurant Religion in Canada
Issue: Vol 35 No. 2 (2016)
Journal: Religious Studies and Theology
Subject Areas: Religious Studies Buddhist Studies Islamic Studies Biblical Studies
DOI: 10.1558/rsth.32553
Abstract:
“Restaurant religion” describes the practice whereby Asian migrants throughout the diaspora display religious objects in their places of business. Many first generation migrants to Canada use the restaurant as a site to display their sense of belonging and religious freedom. Among the Chinese, religious displays were hidden from customers until after the repeal of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1947. For Filipinos, by contrast, religious displays from the beginning were out in the open. From the statues of the Goddess Guanyin to those of green and redrobed Señor Santo Niño restaurant religion tells of favoured deities, devotional practices and family connections. Restaurants provide homes away from home, recreating intimate dining spaces, offering familiar tastes and religious cultures. They became the focal points of Chinatowns and Manila towns throughout Canada. And while restaurant religion is only one aspect of a migrant’s spiritual life it signals the hunger for both faith and familial sustenance.
Author: Alison R. Marshall
References :
Ammerman, Nancy Tatom. 2014. Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bannerji, Himani. 2000. “The Paradox of Diversity: The Construction of a Multicultural Canada and ‘Women of Color.’” Women’s Studies International
Forum 23(5):537–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-5395(00)00130-8
Bautista, Julius J. 2010. Figuring Catholicism: An Ethnohistory of the Santo Niño de Cebu. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Besa, Amy and Romy Dorotan. 2014. Memories of Philippine Kitchens. New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice, translated by R. Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812507
Chau, Adam Yuet. 2014. “Household Sovereignty and Religious Subjectification: China and the Christian West Compared.” Studies in Church History 50: 492–504. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0424208400001911
Dossa, Parin. 2014. Afghanistan Remembers: Gendered Narrations of Violence and Culinary Practice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Marshall, Alison R. 2014. Cultivating Connections: The Making of Chinese Prairie Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Marshall, Alison R. 2011. The Way of the Bachelor: Early Chinese Settlement in Manitoba. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Mehta, Raj and Russell W. Belk. 1991. “Artifacts, Identity, and Transition: Favorite Possessions of Indians and Indian Immigrants to the United States.” Journal of Consumer Research 17(4):398–411. https://doi.org/10.1086/208566
Palmer, Howard. 1976. “Mosaic versus melting pot?: Immigration and Ethnicity in Canada and the United States.” International Journal 31(3):488–528. https://doi.org/10.2307/40201356
Sharma, Nandita. 2006. Home Economics: Nationalism and the Making of “Migrant Workers” in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Tatom Ammerman, Nancy. 2014. Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Turgeon, Laurier and Madeleine Pastinelli. 2002. "‘Eat the World': Postcolonial Encounters in Quebec City's Ethnic Restaurants." Journal of American Folklore 115:247–268. https://doi.org/10.1353/jaf.2002.0023; https:/doi.org/10.2307/4129222