Chinese Student Migrants and American Religious Organizations (中国留学生移民与美国宗教信仰团体)

Abstract

China has been among the top nations sending international students to the United States, and there many American religious organizations have served Chinese student migrants on and off campus. This article examines these organizations’ missions and strategies for recruiting Chinese students and the students’ varying responses. It also discusses the role of these organizations in Chinese migrant communities, especially concerning migrants’ ethnic identity, community building, and local integration. The analysis is based on extensive interviews with both student migrants and the leaders of religious organizations in a Midwestern American city, as well as on participant observation in various programs of these organizations. Highlighting the historical context of the four waves of Chinese student migration since 1978, this article argues that there is no single pattern of students’ relations with religion (particularly Christianity, in the case of this study), and their experience is not necessarily a story of one-way religious conversion but part of broader cultural engagement and transformation for both student migrants and American religious organizations. This cultural interaction has important implications, given the current surge of Chinese travelling and migrating to the United States and the opportunities and challenges forus-China relations in this new era of China’s rise.中国是在美外国留学生最大的输出国之一，在美国校园内外也有很多宗教信仰团体服务这些中国留学生。本文考察这些团体招收和接触中国学生的宗旨和策略，学生们对此不同的回应，以及这些团体在中国移民社区中的作用，特别是在社区建设，身份认同和当地融入方面的影响。分析主要基于在美国中西部一个城市的调查，包括对学生移民和宗教信仰团体领导者的采访和对相关活动的参与式观察。本文突出1978年后四次中国留学生移民浪潮的历史环境，揭示学生们与宗教间（基督教是本文主要考察对象）的关系没有一个单一的模式。她们的经历也不一定是一种单向的宗教皈依； 更好的办法是将其看成一种更广泛意义上的对学生移民和美国宗教信仰团体同样适用和有效的文化对话和转化。这种文化互动在当下中国人到美国旅游和移民数量的剧增，及在中国崛起新形势下中美关系所面对的机遇和挑战的背景下更是意义深远。