Healing Nature

Abstract

Abstract This paper provides the first ethnographic study of spiritual ecology in contemporary Hong Kong. In exploring the life stories of people who wanted to “heal” nature as well as those who were being “healed” by nature through the practice of green living, this paper illuminates the interconnection between self-transformation and social transformation within the green living circle. While the first form of self-transformation occurs when individuals consciously responded to green groups’ appeals to cultivating themselves for the environment, the second mode of self-transformation happens unintendedly as people developed an interest in green living. In conclusion, I argue that the spiritual-ecological practices under the umbrella of green living offered people in Hong Kong a means to introspect, re-organize, and even transform their lives during difficult life events and challenging life transition. In turn, the emotional and spiritual experience of self-transformation not only reinforced people’s faith in the power of nature, such positive experience was also key to perpetuating their interest and efforts in greening Hong Kong and the world beyond.