ABSTRAK
The Chinese began migrating to Vietnam very early (in the third century BC) and continuously underwent either mass or small migration afterwards. Their long processes of living and having contact with different ethnic communities in Vietnam made the Chinese worship of Goddess Tianhou change radically. By examining these practices of worship in two areas where the Chinese settled the most, Thura Thien Hue province (central Vietnam) and Ho Chi Minh City(southern Vietnam), this paper aims to understand the patterns of acculturation of the Chinese community in its new land. An analysis of information from both field research and archival sources will show how the Chinese have changed the worship of the Tianhou goddess during their co existence with ethnic communities in Vietnam. Itargues that there is no peripheral fossilization of the Chinese culture in Vietnam.