How Hong Kong has made Tin Hau festival its own

Tin Hau temples across Hong Kong this month put on a striking display for the Queen of Heaven’s “birthday”. And – as with popular festivities of any other religious or cultural orientation – community groups competed to have the most elaborate decorations and displays; colourful triangular pennants are always a notable feature, and indicate exactly who funded what.

While widely venerated in Hong Kong, the Tin Hau cult (alternative names are used, such as Leung Ma, Ah Ma and Ma Cho) originally centred on boat dwellers, of which there were once many.

Now considered completely “local”, the Tin Hau Festival is – like most aspects of contemporary Hong Kong culture and society – an import that, over time, became significantly modified from its origins, yet nevertheless remains recognisable.

Tin Hau worship spread extensively around the Pearl River estuary during the 14th century, with the large-scale migration of Fujianese boatbuilders to Guangdong’s coastal areas. Macau’s evolution from the 1550s, and the expansion of Guangzhou, greatly stimulated coastal and regional trade.

Macau’s Ah Ma Temple, on the Inner Harbour, was built by these migrants.

The most skilled Chinese boatbuilders at that time, many left Fujian in search of opportunity.