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not at all the same figure as the Hong Kong Huang Daxian. This could easily be done with a small plaque identifying the statue as Huang Yeren. Indeed, a Hong Kong Taoist organization which has provided some funds for the renovation of the temple had asked them to make this clarification. A member of the Sese Yuan had also visited the temple and objected to the claim that the Hong Kong Huang Daxian had originated at Luofu, and was in fact the Luofu saint Huang Yeren. He too had asked the temple to make this clarification. However, up to the time of our visit, they had declined to do this. Why have they declined?
Perhaps, we thought, they expect that Hong Kong tourists may be willing to visit the site where their Huang Daxian became an immortal. The anticipation of this flow of tourists and devotees may explain the placing of the statue in a new “Red Pine Huang Daxian" room. The new statue also makes the identification with Huang Chuping easier, because the mute tiger, evidently represented at the Yeren altar before the restoration, has disappeared.' (The presence of the tiger, of course, would strongly distinguish Huang Yeren, the wild man, from Huang Chuping, the tender of sheep).
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Hong Kong tourists are indeed coming to Luofu. We observed a tourist bus arriving at the temple from Hong Kong and heard the tour guide, addressing his group by megaphone, refer to the site as the place of origin of Huang Daxian. These Hong Kong tourists, we found, were not at all interested in discussing the possibility that the Hong Kong Huang Daxian did not in fact originate there. One elderly local person whom we interviewed asserted that “the masses wish the two figures to be the same, and so we'll let them be the same." Considering the amount of revenue which the Hong Kong tourist trade might generate in the area, this position is not surprising.
It is quite possible that this confusion or merging of the identities of the two Huangs at Mt. Luofu will not continue indefinitely. The Sese Yuan is, of course, aware of the claims made by the Luofu temple in regard to their "Huang Daxian”, and at some point they may issue a formal rebuttal of some kind, which would be publicized in the Chinese-language media in Hong Kong (as of