In this case study, Graeme Lang and Lars Ragvald describe how plagues, war, revolutions, and industrialization affected the worship of the Chinese god Wong Tai Sin, and why, after his cult was extinguished within China in the 1960's, Wong Tai Sin became hugely successful in Hong Kong. Originally a healing god, he has now become a generalist, and is consulted by anxious urbanites about love, careers and emigration.