從宗教社會學的角度討論海外華人的民間信仰，是目前中國大陸學術界關注較少的課題。本文從新加坡華人的「祖神崇拜」切入，以新加坡蓬萊寺的六個姓氏廟為研究個案，考察跨境分香的祖籍神明，如何在新加坡移民社會脈絡下「定居」即「再社群化」？ 其建構新加坡華人社群「祖神」的歷史過程為何？ 在這一 歷史過程中，承載著祖籍原鄉歷史記憶的「祖神崇拜」對新加坡華人社會內部社 群的認同與整合有何意義？以及歷經從移民時代到本土社會歷史發展變遷的沉澱，「祖神」逐漸成為當代華人維繫與祖籍地關係的象徵符號與祖籍認同物件的歷 史演化又是如何？本文研究顯示，新加坡華人社會發展及其與祖籍地互動的關係，所涵蓋祖籍地與移居地兩方面歷史記憶的「祖神崇拜」，將以一種具有歷史延續性和動態發展的文化紐帶持續地發揮重要的作用。

Overseas Chinese immigrants usually brought the deities they worshipped in their ancestral home with them to their new settlements. These “migrating deities” and their related beliefs/practices remain largely unstudied. Using the Six-Surnames Shrine in the Penglai Temple of the Anxi society in Singapore as a case study, this essay examines the worship of these deities among Singapore Chinese. First, it outlines the historical process whereby individual migrants “took incense from the home shrine” across territorial boundaries (that is, took their deities with them), so that these deities “settled down” in a new place, establishing a distinctive form of worship distant from, but nonetheless linked, through the deity, to the migrants’ ancestral home. Second, it considers the significance of the worship of these “ancestral-home deities” (zushen) for the social integration of Singapore Chinese. Finally, it traces how, in the course of social development and change, ancestral-home deities gradually evolved into symbolic markers linking overseas Chinese to their ancestral home, providing a focus for the expression of native place or ancestral-home identity (zuji rentong). Thus, by encompassing historical memories of both the ancestral home and the site of overseas migration, worship of ancestral-home deities played an important role in the integration of Singapore Chinese and in the ongoing relationship between the overseas Chinese and their ancestral homes. Moreover, as a force for historical continuity and a dynamic, evolving cultural bond, to this day it continues to play an important role in overseas
Chinese society.