Searching for meaning in a hybrid and fractured world: Contemporary Chinese cultural identity and its implications for missiology

Abstract

Few societies have experienced the pace of change that China has in the last half century. Massive ideological and socio-economic shifts, along with the more recent forces of globalization, have produced a culture that is now hybrid and fragmented. Thus, it is simply no longer viable, or even wise, to continue to think of Chinese culture primarily in terms of “traditional” or Confucian. Instead, concepts of hybridity, fractured narratives, and the expressive self offer us much more productive conceptual lenses both for understanding contemporary Chinese culture and for informing future missiological research.