Kwock Hing Society, Kēōkea基奥基亚国兴会馆（关帝庙）
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- United States · Hawaii State · Kēōkea (Kula, Maui) · Cross Road, Kēōkea, Kula, Maui
- Coordinates
- 20.70972, -156.35306 Map ↗
- First built
- 1907 · The society was founded in 1900 (with seventy-one members), built its building in 1907, and moved to its present site in 1912
- Heritage status
- National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) #82000172 (15 November 1982)Hawaii State Register of Historic Places (30 June 1982)State Group No. 50-10-1615, "Maui Chinese Society Buildings"
Overview
The Kwock Hing Society (also given as Ket Hing Society) is the only Chinese association-hall temple on Maui still in use today. The society was founded in 1900 by seventy-one Chinese, built the first two-story building in the Kula district in 1907, and moved to its present site in 1912. The upper floor is a sacred space for members only, its principal deity Guandi (venerated for his righteousness and compassion), together with ancestral tablets and the Earth God; the ground floor is a hall for public activities. The society belongs to the Hongmen system, and Sun Yat-sen joined it here in 1903 — his elder brother Sun Mei was then living in Kula, and the site became a base for Xingzhonghui activity on Maui. It still holds rites for Lunar New Year, Qingming, and Mid-Autumn Festival; in 2011 it received a grant from the Sun Yat-sen Foundation to restore the cemetery shrine, in 2020 it received a donated new shrine to accommodate elderly worshippers, and in 2021 it again raised funds to repair the temple. Hawaiʻi's state nomination document explicitly cites the society's dependence on Daoist belief and the continuation of traditional religious practice as the basis for recognizing the historical value of the three association halls on Maui.
Highlights
- The only Chinese association-hall temple on Maui still in use
- Principal deity Guandi, together with ancestral tablets and the Earth God
- Sun Yat-sen joined the Hongmen here in 1903
- The state nomination document cites Daoist belief as the basis of its value