Worshipping the Other: a literary anthropological study of the Datuk Gong cult in Malaysia

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Malaysia, Malays and Chinese are considered to be two distinct ethnic groups. Therefore, the popular cult of Malay-Muslim Datuk Gong among Chinese religious believers – a worship of ‘the Other’ – is a fascinating ethno-religious phenomenon. Adopting the approach of literary anthropology to examine discrete writings on Datuk Gong produced by different individuals over a century, this article explores the multiple meanings of ‘worshipping the Other’ to Malay(si)an Chinese. Such worship reflects a dual respect and fear of nature and ethnic strangers, an imagination to integrate ethnic differences with the natives into a virtual kinship, a sense of harmonious community among diverse neighbours, a deep anxiety of diaspora identity and a feeling of powerlessness in ethnic conflicts with the dominant groups. Applying Pierre Bourdieu’s theory on ‘habitus’ and ‘fields’, the article argues that instead of passively participating in the Datuk Gong worship, Chinese believers actively interpret it to construct diverse ‘Selves and Others’ based on the different habitus and fields they occupy.