On discovering my cultural heritage

I'm half Chinese. Apparently it's not evident, but I am. To be honest, I don't really know all that much about Chinese culture. So, I decided to find out. Tonight I "facetimed" my aunt and uncles, and here's what they told me:

Not really much is known about how my bak-gung (great grandfather in Toisanese, a dialect closely related to Cantonese) came here, or what he did for work when he first arrived. Bak gung and his family owned property in Toisan, China before he arrived in New Brunswick in the 1920's. It is presumed that the money from being a proprietor is how he was able to come to Canada where he was charged a $500 head tax upon arrival. Shortly thereafter, he opened a restaurant and through family reunification sponsorship, my bok-bok (great grandmother), por-por (maternal grandmother), gung-gung (paternal grandfather), and their 6 children came to join my grandfather in Canada from Hong Kong in the late 1950's. It's a bit of a family rumour that they came to Canada to escape Chairman Mao, but no one is completely sure of its veracity. They came here with the intention to "Westernize." A lot of their Chinese traditions changed to adapt to a more "Western" lifestyle. Almost all of por-por and gung-gung's children who got married, married people of European descent. A lot of the knowledge of Chinese traditions and language weren't encouraged (but certainly were not frowned upon) to pass onto the next generation -- my generation. This is one of the reasons why I don't really know much about Chinese culture and traditions.

I'm in a PAAS class called "Ghosts and Spirits," and it's about the cultural relevance and roles that ghosts and spirits play within cultures with a focus on Asian cultures. Lately we've been learning about Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto, and the importance of ancestor veneration in many Asian cultures. It is believed that ancestor spirits will take care of and watch over living family members as long as respect is paid to the ancestor spirits. One way to show respect is to have altars or shrines in their homes dedicated to past family members, and routinely have offerings of food and drink for the ancestor spirits. The shrines can be a shelf, or a cabinet, with photographs/portraits or some type of commemoration of the past family members with candles, statues, and incense amongst other things.

For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about this. Being a family-centric person, I liked the idea that your family members could look after you and participate in your life even after they were no longer of this world. Why haven't I heard about ancestor shrines before? Does my family have one? So I decided to talk to my mom to get to the bottom of things. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Mom!! Why don't we venerate our ancestors?"
Mom: "uhhh....what?"
Me: "Why doesn't por-por have an ancestor shrine? Why don't we venerate our ancestors?!"
Mom: "She does have one. It's that buffet hutch in their dining room."
Me: "Oh. I just thought it was a buffet hutch with random statues inside..."

One of the traditions that my family had modified was the ancestor shrine. It's not a blatantly obvious shrine, and it's actually on top of the buffet hutch about 6' off the ground (and out of the reach of troublesome grandchildren). According to my aunt and uncles, it was set up for my bak-gung upon arriving in Toronto with bok-bok and gung-gung included once they passed. Although it's not really a typical shrine it does have the essential components, but I had never known it was there.

The reason why I thought I should include this in my blog is because I feel like it is almost an on-going extension to a funerary custom/practice. People die, but the spirit stays around and watches over the family, while the family continues to provide for the ancestors as well. This is an important part of daily life. I also thought materially, if ancestor shrines could indeed be thought as a funerary tradition, how they could be represented in an archaeological context. Out of context these shrines may not be necessarily thought as a funerary artifact as there is no physical body associated with it, but the spiritual function of the dead (or their spirits) is just as important to everyday life.

Me: "...Well, why don't we have an ancestor shrine?"
Mom: "Well, if you really want one you can make one."

Maybe I will, maybe I will...