The love for worshipping is a Taiwanese characteristic
Taiwanese love to worship deities, gods, Jesus, Maria, and Goddess of Mercy, Ma-Tsu etc. If a rock is beautiful and seem spiritual, it would be called "Honorable Rock;" if a person passed away without any offspring to bury him/her, when the body is buried by some good people, he/she would be called "The Inspired One".
In other words, Taiwanese people are tolerant to religious faiths, including ancestral worshipping and respect for foreign religions. However, there are still people who believe, if one was converted to a religion but wants to go to join another, he/she is "betraying" the former religion and will be severely punished by the divine. There are also religions with strict doctrines that scare its followers; the prudent ones will earn others' respect over time, but then they will have no other choices but to stick to the doctrines rigorously. There are also religions that forbid ancestral worshipping, for they believe that ancestral worshipping would waver their belief that there is only one God.
In reality, Taiwanese people's worshipping shows religion tolerance. To worship ancestors is both a custom and a habit; many foreign religions do not understand this but try to forfeit this custom. If there is a bad custom, it is all right to adjust it; but to judge Chinese by a foreign standard and to play with Chinese traditional customs, after a while, there will emerge a group with new thoughts, soon social problems will emerge, too. During Ching Dynasty, all foreign missionaries dressed in Chinese clothing, followed Chinese rules of decorum and worshipped as the civilians did. When the Republic of China was established, many felt ashamed of their own culture and of what they are. They wanted to be like the foreigners, hence they stopped paying respects to their ancestors and destroyed ancestral tablets at home.
Taiwan Tati Cultural & Educational Foundation
