Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

Every first and fifteenth day of the month on the lunar calendar, it is customary for my family to burn joss-sticks and incense paper as offerings to my ancestors. This is a tradition of my religion, Taoism. Personally, I am not a staunch Taoist. I do not know much of the “Way of Tao” and I have just discovered that I know only 6 of the 38 major festivals in Taoism, according to this website. As far as I am concerned, I do exactly what my parents tell me to.

I do not like the smell that joss-sticks emanate; somehow the gases emitted from smoldering joss-sticks sting my eyes. Moreover, I hate the fact that some irresponsible people simply burn incense paper and offerings on the pavement, damaging public property. The government has designated metallic containers at the void decks for people to burn incense paper but most of those who refuse to burn offerings in a common container argue that “their ancestors will not be able to receive the offerings”. I do not question their beliefs but my take is that any orthodox religion teaches people to be non-destructive and to be socially responsible.

For my family, we burn incense paper in a metal tin (25cm by 25cm by 35cm) along the corridor. Having lived in the same HDB unit for more than 20 years, we have never received any complaints from our neighbours with regards to burning offerings along the corridor until a year ago.

One particular morning, my neighbour, a middle-aged lady, decided to confront my father. While the latter was offering joss-sticks, she approached him, interrupted the ritual and commented that the smoke has been making her home very sooty and that it is illegal to burn incense paper along the corridor. My father is a calm person, one who is not easily intimidated by threats. He ignored her remarks temporarily, completed the ritual, then replied coldly, “Go HDB to make a complaint,” and he proceeded to burn the offerings.

My father insisted on ignoring the threat, while my mother decided that, in future, she will bring the metal tin to the void deck when burning offerings. Apparently, my neighbour did not make the complaint, as we have yet to receive any warning letters from the HDB. If I were in my neighbour’s shoes, considering my dislike for smoke, soot and vapours from joss-sticks, I would definitely lodge a complaint.

Upon closer examination, I find that this conflict is not purely intercultural. If it is, all my former neighbours who are not Taoists should have complained. However, this is the first time in twenty years that a neighbour has ever complained. So it would probably suggest that my family did not have a good relationship with my current neighbour and this is merely an outlet for them to vent their frustration. Nonetheless, there exists a conflict of interest which is intercultural, as by burning incense paper along the corridor at our convenience, we have been indirectly dirtying the neighbouring apartments.