Dr Christina Miu Bing Cheng
Honorary Research Fellow
Centre of Asian Studies
The University of Hong Kong
The paper was presented at the 17th Triennial Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, August 8-15, 2004, in Hong Kong.
Matriarchy at the Edge
The Mythic Cult of Nu Wa 女娲 in Macau
Introduction
The mythological repertoires of early Chinese culture and civilization are contained in a number of classical texts. These texts are invaluable sources to understand the power of mythological narratives, which re-enact and confound with the history of China, and which crucially foster cultural cohesion and a sense of collective identity. The mythological narratives, as Anne Birrell argues, are sacred narratives, chiefly because 'they relate acts of the deities in addition to other episodes, and they embody the most deeply felt spiritual values of a nation' (Birrell, 2000:7). In Macau-the former Portuguese enclave at the edge of South China, there is a small temple consecrated to Nu Wa 女娲. This were-snake Daoist goddess has been an influential deity since antiquity and played a pivotal role in Chinese mythical history. She represents Chinese culture's cosmogony, or creation myth. Bits and pieces of Nu Wa's portrayal as the primeval creator goddess and saviour of human life are narrated in various time-honoured classics, i.e. a Warring States Period (475—221 B.C.) text, Lie Zi <> (Master Lie) and two Han-dynasty (206 B.C.—220 A.D.) texts, Feng Su Tong Yi <> (Comprehensive Interpretation of Customs) and Huai Nan Zi <> (Master Huai Nan). Apart from her matriarchal image as the Earth Mother, she is depicted as a beautiful but wrathful goddess in a Ming-dynasty (1368—1644) mythological narrative, Feng Shen Yan Yi <> (Creation of the Gods). Moreover, Cao Xueqin曹雪芹 (1717—1763) opens his masterpiece, Hung Lou Meng <> (The Dream of the Red Chamber), with a decisive reference to Nu Wa as the repairer of the sky. Amid an assortment of divinities in Macau, this archaic goddess does not offer the more coveted "mainstream" services associated with the sea. Instead, she represents another layer in the spirit world by providing "subsidiary" divine assistance. Given that the cult of Nu Wa still retains its hold, even today, the pertinent questions now are: why is Nu Wa honoured at the periphery of China and how does the Chinese pantheistic spirit exemplified in her "divine abode" What is the significance of the Nu Wa myth and her evolving status in the spiritual hierarchy How are Chinese literary texts made to serve as a vehicle to consolidate myth making. And what are the differences and similarities of the creation myths between the East and the West While applying the "etiological" approach to trace the origins and explanations of the Nu Wa myth, this paper also focuses on a broader exegesis, combining the disciplines of the classics, history, literature, religion, art, folklore, anthropology and psychology, for discussion.

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