從「文化識別」的概念反思多元文化主義脈絡下馬來西亞華人身份認同兼論華人基督徒

「文化識別」（Cultural Identification）是臺灣道教研究泰斗李豐楙院士從過去在馬來西亞多次進行華人宗教考察與研究的經驗提煉出的概念。他發現當地華人有意識藉民俗節慶的慶祝以及宗教儀式在馬來西亞多元紛呈的社會脈絡中，凸顯本身族裔、文化的獨特性，作為與友族或其他宗教區別開來的符號；同時，這些節慶保存華族文化特徵，可以與友族、友教的文化標誌並陳，而且這些傳統節慶多有宗教意涵，他稱之「教節一體」。某些程度顯示馬來西亞多元社會中宗教與族群之間身份認同的關連性。然而，這樣的理解將族裔與宗教之間掛上一條等價鏈，且有加深種族刻板印象之虞。本文藉華人基督徒的例子，指出在馬來西亞華人社群裡「文化識別」並非只能透過傳統宗教與節慶表達，而且，宗教和族裔的等值鍊關係認知，破壞了族裔內的多元性並助長刻板印象和「內部東方主義」。

關鍵字

文化識別；馬來西亞華人基督徒；多元文化；身份認同；反離散

並列摘要

"Cultural Identification" is a concept extracted from illustrious scholar of Taoism in Taiwan, Professor Li Feng-Mao, based on his experience in conducting investigations and research on Chinese religions in Malaysia. He found that the local Chinese consciously use the celebration of Chinese folk festivals and religious ceremonies to highlight the uniqueness of their own ethnicity and culture in multicultural Malaysian social context, as a symbol to distinguish them from other ethnic groups or other religions; Furthermore, He argues that these festivals have preserved the characteristics of ethnic Chinese culture can be displayed side by side with the cultural symbols of other local ethnic groups and their religions, and these traditional festivals often have religious connotations, which he called "integration of religion and festival" which demonstrates the connection between religion and ethnic identity in the Malaysian multicultural society. However, such an argument posted by Li puts a chain of equivalence between ethnicity and religion and may increase racial stereotypes. This paper refers to the example of Chinese Christians and points out that "cultural identity" in the Malaysian Chinese community may not only be expressed through traditional Chinese religions and festivals. Moreover, this paper also points out that the understanding of the chain of equivalence relationship between religion and ethnicity violates and goes against the diversity within ethnic groups and encourages a certain type of "internal orientalism".