Seeking the Christian tutelage: agency and culture in Chinese immigrants' conversion to Christianity

Sociology of Religion, Summer, 2002 by Kwai Hang Ng

PRACTICING CHINESE ETHNIC CULTURE

Besides serving as a moral sanctioning agent, the church also provides for the Chinese immigrants a free, albeit relatively isolated, social space to reinvigorate practices of their own ethnic culture on the one hand while learning the "American way" on the other. I shall first discuss how Chinese ethnic culture is practiced within the church.

1) Chinese Festivities and Pastimes

No occasions serve better than the celebration of Chinese festivities to provide an opportunity for the congregants to reinvigorate some of their traditional cultural symbols and practices. Among the traditional cultural symbols, the Chinese ideographic characters are often venerated on these occasions to remind members of their shared Chineseness. Practices centering around the display of written Chinese scripts, like Chinese calligraphy demonstrations, hanging Chinese lantern puzzles, (7) and putting up couplets of biblical phrases or verses in Chinese on red paper are common during the celebration of Chinese New Year, and the written language visibly dots the "landscape" everywhere. The written Chinese script is a powerful cultural symbol of shared heritage. While Chinese of different regions speak different dialects, they learn the same written script. As for the spoken Chinese languages, they can be a source of division for a community whose members are from different parts of the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. On occasions like communal meals, members sometimes tend to separate into cliques that speak the same mother tongues. But in gatherings when the shared ethnic identity is emphasized, leaders of the VPCC always find ways to turn the potentially divisive issue of language into a cultural symbol that emphasizes unity. For example, during the celebratory gathering for the Lunar New Year held by the VPCC, the congregants were asked to offer their greetings in their own dialects. A wide range of different Chinese regional dialects like Cantonese, Sichuanese, Shanghainese, and Shanxiese was heard. But the emphasis here was not on how the dialects sounded different from one another, but how they expressed the same auspicious greetings (wishing people good health and prosperity, family harmony, etc.) that were shared and welcomed by all Chinese: "Chinese throughout different parts of the world all give their greetings in the Lunar New Year; let's hear how we say it in different dialects," the host of the gathering said. It is on occasions like this that differences in dialect are acknowledged and yet overridden by the emphasis on cultural sameness.

(2) Communal Banquet

Ethnic identity is also fostered through the acting out of other cultural practices that are regarded as characteristically Chinese. Tangible, albeit seemingly mundane, cultural practices like habits of eating, ways of talking, styles of dress, and mannerisms all contribute to a local system of meanings that reinforces ethnic identification. Among the various cultural practices, nothing surpasses Chinese food in its "sacredness" among the VPCC's members. (8) The communal meal is the most popular form of non-religious gathering in the church. It accompanies most activities that take place both inside and outside the church building. The church offers communal lunch after each worship service. Food, most of the time Chinese, is prepared in the church. For them, eating delicious Chinese dishes together is in itself a great enjoyment. Thus, dinner is also served in different Bible study groups; participants eat together before the Bible study and then have dessert after the study. That explains why a typical Bible study meeting lasts a whole evening. On special occasions like the celebration of a member's birthday or farewell parties to families moving to other cities, a potluck gathering will be organized. Families pride themselves on preparing the most authentic and delicious Chinese dishes.