Fractured lives, newfound freedoms? The dialectics of religious seekership among Chinese migrants in Singapore

• Main Authors: WOODS, Orlando, KONG, Lily
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Migration; Conversion; Christianity; Singapore; China; Community; Asian Studies; Sociology of Culture
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3028; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4285/viewcontent/Fractured_Lives.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This paper explores the negotiations involved in the process of Chinesemigrants converting to Christianity in Singapore. For many Chinesepeople, migration involves being exposed to religion for the first time,and for some, it involves them converting to Christianity. In Singapore,the conversion of Chinese migrants to Christianity occurs in a context of‘shared’ Chinese ethnicity, which can provide both bridges and barriersto the formation of Chinese Christian identities and communities. This‘shared’ ethnicity causes many Christian groups in Singapore to targetChinese migrants in their evangelisation efforts, which can result inmigrant and non-migrant Chinese communities being formed andfractured through religion. Drawing on qualitative data, four dialecticalpairings – freedom and control, giving and receiving, questioning andauthority, community and identity – are used to understand thenegotiations and compromises involved in the conversion of Chinesemigrants to Christianity. Through these understandings, we show howconversion often involves reconciling different mindsets, practices andexpectations in the transition to Chinese Christian.