Revisiting Chinese-ness: A Transcultural Exploration of Chinese Christians in Germany

Abstract

This paper proposes a transcultural exploration of Chinese Christians in Germany, based on two years of fieldwork. I problematise the key term ‘Chinese-ness’ in particular, and offer a re-imagination of culture, religion and religious community. Literature on Chinese migrants rarely focuses on the religious perspective, and even when it does, it does not focus on the practitioners of Christianity and often assumes ‘Chinese’ as a national category or a culture that is confined to traditional philosophy. I call my informants ‘transcultural Chinese’ because this term best captures the complex dynamics of their unique community. Instead of being fellowships that only welcome Christian believers from the People's Republic of China, the term ‘Chinese’ in the name of these fellowships must be understood culturally rather than politically. My transcultural approach to their focus on being ‘Chinese’ and preserving the ‘Chinese-ness’ of the fellowship – a ‘Chinese-ness’ which lies in sharing the same language, similar experiences and selected cultural traditions – illuminates perception of the members’ identities and agency. Moreover, such selective Chinese-ness is a two-way street: non-Christian Chinese deny a welcome to the Christian Chinese as a part of their Chinese identity.