Emergent Chinese Diasporic Identity and Culture: Chinese Grave Markers and Mortuary Rituals in Newfoundland

Author(s): Mu Li

Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 131, No. 519 (Winter 2018), pp. 53-90

Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of American Folklore Society

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerfolk.131.519.0053

This article investigates the grave markers and associated mortuary rituals of Newfoundland’s Chinese immigrants, especially those who came before 1949, in order to understand them in the religious context of Newfoundland. The goals of this article are, firstly, to demonstrate emergent creolized diasporic identity and culture by presenting how early Chinese immigrants used Christianity to gradually gain social acceptance and, secondly, to challenge the popular idea that conversion by Chinese immigrants was only strategic.

Standing on the east coast of North America, St. John’s, the capital city of Newfoundland, was a British-ruled dominion prior to 1949 and a rallying point for European bound Allied convoys during World War II. In wartime, the city was filled with servicemen, and many local hostels provided accommodation to them. The Knights of Columbus Hostel was one of those boarding places. It was famous for its regular weekend dance parties, which were often well attended by both servicemen and civilians. On the 12th of December in 1942, a devastating fire, widely believed to have been started by a German agent, spread quickly during a party, taking 99 lives and burning down the building. Among those victims was a Chinese man named Han Mun Fong who was believed to have served as a seaman for the British Merchant Navy (fig. 1). Fong, along with seven other soldiers who lost their lives in the disaster, was buried in the “Field of Honor” section at the Forest Road Anglican Cemetery in St. John’s. Comparing Fong’s headstone with the others in the same section, a distinctive difference between them is the absence of a cross on Fong’s marker (fig. 2).