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differences between the two figures could be demonstrated to potential worshippers in Hong Kong through the modern mass media, and the likelihood that the Sese Yuan will want to keep them separate. However, it is clear that there are also factors which favour a merger: the interest of the Luofu temple in attracting a flow of Hong Kong tourists and devotees, and in further aggrandizing their site; the ignorance of most Hong Kong worshippers about the literary sources or even about the actual biography of the figure whom they worship as Huang Daxian; the continuing decline in the tension between the political system in Hong Kong and the political system in China (a situation which may change, however, as 1997 approaches); the common language and culture of the populations of Hong Kong and of Guangdong province, facilitating travel and pilgrimages into Guangdong province; and the clear desire of many Hong Kong citizens to visit shrines and historic sites, especially those with great cultural significance, in their "home province." If the Sese Yuan takes no decisive action to refute the claim of the Luofu "Huang Daxian” shrine, then the merger of the two figures may eventually become so well established that it would be difficult for the Sese Yuan to completely separate them again. Further, the Sese Yuan has virtually no ability to influence those citizens of Guangdong province who have become acquainted with “Huang Daxian” as a result of his fame in Hong Kong, but who have even less knowledge of his origins than the Hong Kong worshippers. Many have already in their own minds confused or merged the two Huangs. As traditional religious worship spreads in China, as it has under the policies currently in effect with regard to religion, the number of devotees of the Luofu Huang may eventually surpass even those of the Hong Kong Huang, all the more so as it will be many years before citizens of Guangdong province can easily visit the Huang Daxian temple in Kowloon. In short, it is too soon to predict the final outcome of the blending of these two figures which we were so fascinated to observe at Mt. Luofu.
Plates 8-16 at the rear of the volume illustrate this article.