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Houses and Homes, More than buildings

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Ahhhh yes, although the Dragon motifs is expected but the two Dragons facing each other is even more interesting. Chinese restaurants and business do have a notoriety for decking their places of business like temples, for better or for worse (some restaurants admittingly overdo it). From my experience, within the elder generation, those Chinese who migrated here during the 60s, it carries real nuance and spiritual practice since those folks retained spiritual practices, whereas thanks to the "Cultural" Revolution in China, much of it died, or was watered down. Many of these folks actually have personal altars in their homes.

For later waves of migration, it became more a cultural gimmick (no different than an Atheist putting up a Christmas tree), and many will just give you a generic answer like, "Oh it's for good luck".

When I was in Taiwan, there was a festival when they literally set up altars with offerings in front of their homes, businesses, etc., to appease the Gods, ward off malignant energies from entering their dwellings/businesses, even sleek modern businesses like banks, high rises and corporate offices were doing it.
Its interesting that you say that because I do get how generations tend to lose the "spirituality" of a practice and things seem to take a sense of formality rather than real spiritual meaning but when I went to ask the staff for something I did get this sense of "do not cross this line, we are watching" sense and thats when i looked up and saw the dragons. it was interesting, I actually smiled to myself because It was like they "spoke" to me. It wasn't threatening or anything but it did feel very authoritative, like it demanded and expected respect.
 
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