提倡民主科学，反对封建愚昧是新文化运动的中心思想，批判封建迷信、以科学反“孔教”乃至一切宗教是新文化运动的总体宗教观。但在以宗教为自治基础和整合力量的南洋华人社会，新文化运动的传播受到阻力，经历了本土演变。以新加坡为例，20世纪初新加坡华人社会处于现代中华民族意识的塑造阶段，经过祖国“分香”、“移神”而来的民间信仰是联结两地的重要文化纽带，以儒家文化为代表的传统文化复兴是唤起华人民族意识的重要工具，因此，跟风批孔批儒、反对一切宗教就是要将宗教和文化同时与民间社会完全剥离，这在当时的历史背景下无异于斩断新加坡华人社会与祖国的大部分联系。基于此，新文化运动宗教观的输入在一定程度上让位于民族意识构建，表现为《叻报》中所体现的对批孔批儒的忽视和对迷信批判的有限性、实用性。这与同时期《叻报》对新文化运动非宗教议题接受程度相比，体现出新文化运动宗教观念输入新加坡华人社会后的本土演变特点。

Advocating democracy, science and opposing feudal ignorance are the central ideas of the new Culture Movement. Criticizing feudal superstition and opposing‘Confucian education’ and all religions with science are the overall religious views of the new Culture Movement. However, in the Southeast Asian Chinese society, which took religion as the basis of autonomy and integration force, the spread of the new culture movement was resisted and experienced the local evolution. Take Singapore as an example. In the early 20th century, the Chinese society in Singapore was in the shaping stage of modern Chinese national consciousness. Folk beliefs derived from the ‘separation of incense’ and ‘removal of god’ of the motherland were an important cultural bond connecting the two places, and the revival of traditional culture represented by Confucianism was an important tool to arouse Chinese national consciousness. It would cut off most of its ties to the motherland. Based on this, the input of religious views of the new culture movement gave way to the construction of national consciousness to a certain extent, which is manifested by the neglect of criticizing Confucius and Confucianism and the limitation and practicability of criticizing superstition reflected in the Lat Pau. Compared with the acceptance degree of the non-religious issues of the New Culture Movement in the same period, this reflects the local evolution characteristics after the religious ideas of the New Culture Movement were imported into the Chinese society of Singapore.