A familiar presence, far from home
Growing up in Guangdong and Guangxi, then studying overseas, I seem to have developed a small tradition: wherever I find a Mazu temple, I want to visit. This was my first visit to one in Vietnam. Red walls, green roof tiles, ceramic figures, Chinese couplets, and incense burners felt so familiar that I almost forgot I was in Ho Chi Minh City. The map listed the temple as Hakka Thien Hau Temple.
The caretaker welcomed my friend and me and invited us to take incense. He spoke Vietnamese, but no longer spoke Cantonese or another Chinese variety. Language had changed across generations; the gods were still here. On the day of our visit, the temple was commemorating Wang Lingguan, and the caretaker cheerfully invited us to light incense for his birthday.
Inside, I greeted Mazu, Houtu, and Longmu, along with the other deities. I do not see their presence as simple evidence of a surviving matriarchal society. It suggests a religious world built through movement and accumulation, in which deities associated with sea, land, and water can share a room.
I did not have a request to make. Sometimes, far from home, it is enough to find familiar presences and visit them. The names of the gods appeared in Chinese and Vietnamese. I watched Vietnamese-speaking visitors cast divination blocks; I did not know their ancestry and did not want to define it for them.
Continuity need not mean remaining unchanged. A language can shift, a deity's name can appear in two scripts, and a temple sustained by an immigrant community can become part of another city's ordinary life.
越南生活观察｜在胡志明，去看望了一次妈祖
作为一个从两广长大、又在海外读书的人，我好像慢慢有了自己的小传统：每到一个地方，如果那里有妈祖庙，总想去看看她。
这是我第一次走进越南的妈祖庙。红墙绿瓦、屋脊陶塑、中文楹联与香炉，一切都熟悉得让我差点忘记自己身在胡志明。这座庙在地图上标作 Hakka Thien Hau Temple（客家天后庙），也是华人移民历史在这座城市留下的宗教空间之一。
守庙的管理人很热情，邀请我和朋友参观，香也是免费自取的。但很有意思的是，他已经不会说粤语或其他汉语方言，只会越南语。语言已经发生了代际转换，神明却还留在这里。
那天恰逢庙里纪念王灵官的日子，守庙人开心地要我们为他点香过生日。他与包公同祀于侧殿，案桌被打理得一尘不染。
走进正殿，里面有许多华南民间信仰熟悉的女性神祇。我主要拜了妈祖，后土和龙母娘娘，其他也一一打了招呼。这并非简单的“母系社会遗存”，更像华南民间信仰不断叠加、流动的神祇世界：海洋、土地、水域与地方神祇，可以共处一室。
于是我还是按照自己的习惯，心里念着：好久没来看你们了，希望你们最近也开心快乐。
我一直觉得，参拜不一定非要向神明求些什么。有时走到很远的地方，发现熟悉的祂们还在那里，就想进去看望一下。
庙里的神名以中文、越南文并列。我还看到说越南语的参拜者熟练地掷筊。我不知道他们是不是华人后裔，也不想替他们定义。
但作为一个做人类学的人，这恰恰是我觉得最有意思的地方：文化的延续，并不意味着原封不动。语言可以改变，神明的名字可以同时用两种文字书写，一座由移民社群维系的庙宇也可以慢慢进入另一座城市的日常。
几百年前渡海而来的或许是人。后来留下来的，却不只是他们的后代。还有屋檐、香火、神明，以及人们掷下的那一对筊杯，把今天的胡志明与几百年前渡海而来的人连接在一起。
📍Hakka Thien Hau Temple｜Ho Chi Minh City
English adaptation of my Chinese Xiaohongshu note. The Chinese original is preserved below; these are situated personal observations. Read the original on Xiaohongshu
Images and Chinese text retained from my Xiaohongshu note.