Overseas Chinese Christians in Contemporary China

Download or read book Overseas Chinese Christians in Contemporary China written by Sin Wen Lau and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Overseas Chinese Christians in Contemporary China explores how diasporic Chinese understandings of what it means to be Chinese are changing in post-1978 China. Ethnographically, it focuses on overseas Chinese Christian business people residing in Shanghai. Hyper-mobile, well-educated, and financially secure, these elites adopt a long-term view of their time in the country. This study examines how these elites put Christianity to work, mediating their hopes, fears, and obligations, in order to illuminate the ways in which this overseas Chinese experience departs from existing academic models of diasporic Chinese as either bridge-builders or pragmatic capitalists. By focusing on religion, this study offers novel insights into how overseas Chinese are making a place for themselves in a globalising China.