‘Like running into a God of Fortune’: lady luck shines on Chinese seaman who lands seat next to statue of sea goddess Mazu on flight

A Chinese sailor has been left to ponder the power of coincidence after pure chance allocated him a seat beside a sea deity on a domestic mainland flight earlier this month.

On boarding a plane bound for Yantai, a city in eastern China’s Shandong province, from Shanghai on April 21, the seaman was slightly perturbed to discover that the “person” in the seat next to him was a large statue.

The seaman, surnamed Liu, had been getting comfortable in his seat before take-off when a group of men boarded carrying something “scary” and placed it in the seat next to him.

Liu’s mood turned from puzzlement to ecstasy when the man safeguarding the sizeable sculpture told him that it was a statue of the sea goddess Mazu and explained her ancient role as a protector of seafarers.

The man explained they were taking the statue from her hometown in southeastern Fujian province to bless the residents at their destination with her presence.

An already surreal situation turned into a celebration of luck when Liu revealed he was a sailor by profession.

The man accompanying the deity also explained that while it was not the first time Mazu had travelled by air, they usually booked a chartered flight or purchased the whole row of seats.

However, they were in such a hurry on this occasion, the statue had to sit next to him.

After Liu shared a video of himself and Mazu on the flight on Douyin, people expressed envy and congratulations, saying it was like “a businessman running into a God of Fortune”.

People online wondered what the odds were of such a coincidence happening, adding that Liu was surely going to have “a blessed life”.

“If it were my mum sitting next to Mazu, she would sit in a kneeling position throughout the whole journey,” said an online observer from southern Guangdong province, where the goddess is also worshipped widely.

Legend has it that Mazu, known as Tin Hau in Hong Kong, was a real person called Lin Mo, a girl who lived off the southeastern coastal province of Fujian in the 10th century.

It is said that Lin was able to predict the weather and help fishermen avoid disasters at sea. She is said to have died trying to rescue shipwrecks in her 20s before ascending to heaven and becoming a deity.

The worship of Mazu spread across China’s coastal areas from Fujian and Shanghai to the northern coastal city Tianjin.

She is also revered across Southeast Asia in countries with sizeable Chinese populations such as Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. There are 5,000 Mazu temples in the world and 300 million people share the Mazu faith, according to a report in China Daily.

Previously, the statue has travelled by high-speed rail and domestic and international flights to bring blessings to coastal communities.

The purchase of Mazu’s travel tickets, however, must follow the rules of mere mortals.