Perceptions of Chinese Temples Through Soundscape And Smellscape: A Case Study at Wong Tai Sin

Most Chinese temples in Hong Kong were built long before the city’s modern economic transformation in the 1950s. Consequently, many of these temples are located in densely populated areas surrounded by residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. Some key elements of Chinese temples include music playing, the sound of rituals, and the direct burning of incense. Established by existing literature, observation, and interviews, some of these practices can create nuisance and adverse health effects on individuals. All these bring us to the question: are there any conflicts between preserving the sounds and smells of temples and the comfort of nearby residents, specifically in Hong Kong? Through conducting semi-structured and unstructured interviews at Wong Tai Sin Temple, one of the largest and most representative establishments of such kind in Hong Kong, we attempt to understand the perspectives of different groups of people (e.g., local residents/visitors, foreign tourists, staff, etc.) within the setting of a temple. This is further supplemented by reviewing the public discourse via popular sources (e.g., popular media, social media, online forums, etc.) to mediate the potential bias from a single-site field study. ©2025 Lok Him Lam et al.