Chinese evangelists on the move: space, authority, and ethnicisation among overseas Chinese Protestant Christians. (September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huang, Yuqin; Hsiao, I-hsin
• Is Part Of: Social compass. Volume 62:Number 3(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 379
• Page End: 395
• Publication Date: 2015-09
• Subjects: Chinese evangelists -- Chinese Protestant Christianity -- ethnicisation -- missionisation; christianité protestante chinoise -- ethnicisation -- évangélistes chinois -- missionisation; Religion and sociology -- Periodicals; 306.605
• DOI: 10.1177/0037768615587823
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0037-7686

Abstract

Since the 2000s, Chinese Christians in Europe have witnessed an increasing flow of resources and evangelists from Chinese Christian Communities in North America. Based on information gathered in the UK, Germany and China, this article aims to reveal the mechanisms and dynamics behind the space-making and network-building in overseas Chinese Protestant Christians' missionisation processes. The authors suggest that the increased flow takes place in an imagined faith community reinforced by the discourse on the 'suffering' of the Chinese nation, that it is a result of a far-reaching geographical imaginary with ethnic Chinese evangelists as God's new chosen people, and that it is linked to the dynamics in the specific locations of North America, Europe and China. These mechanisms and dynamics are entangled with a 'network of moralities' arising from the discourses on 'authenticity' and 'suffering'. The result is a distinct ethno-religious space, which, however, does not conflict with the cosmopolitan aims of the grand missionary enterprise.