Conversion and Identity Construction: The Role of the Chinese Christian Church in the USA

Team Members/Contributors

Fenggang Yang Catholic University of America Contact Me

About this dissertation fellowship

The current trend of immigration is changing the composition of American population. Past theories are inadequate to explain experiences of many of the new immigrants in their assimilation to the society of the United States. The phenomenon of convert groups, people who give up the religion of the origin and convert to the mainstream religions after immigration, deserves more understanding. The rapidly growing Chinese Christian church is a case to examine.

Christianity has become the most important religion among Chinese people in the United States. The majority of Chinese Christians are converts. Many of Chinese churches are non-denominational and have a conservative tendency.

The role of the Chinese church is threefold: it is a converting agency: the construction and re-affirming of a meaning system based on Christian faith is most important for the church and the participants. It is an assimilation agency: it is a home for the “selective assimilation,” holding traditional moral values but based them on the newly accepted Christian ground. It is also an ethnic center: it not only maintains Chinese identity by network construction, but also transforms the Chinese pride to a Chinese mission which stimulates Chinese Christians to evangelize to other peoples.

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
  Chinese Christians in America: Conversion, Assimilation, and Adhesive Identities 1999 Dissertation Book Fenggang Yang
  Religious Conversion and Identity Construction: A Study of a Chinese Christian Church in the United States 1996 Dissertation Fenggang Yang