The Beautiful Life: Taiwanese Immigration and Evangelical Christianity in the United States

• In Event: 3181 - Section on Asia and Asian America Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 03. Ethnic Identities

Abstract

My paper examines the relationship between the Evangelical Christian desire for inclusivity and the ethno-political identities among first generation Taiwanese Christians. Specifically, the case of Taiwanese American Christians presents a unique opportunity to examine not only the ways in which the ongoing contestation of nationhood have changed over time but also how those tensions rearticulate themselves through the act of migration itself, how immigrants carry those tensions with them and how they become legible in a US (religious) context. As such, my project registers how congregants at a monoethnic Taiwanese church continuously redefine Christian notions of inclusivity alongside these attitudes.
According to approximately 6 months of ongoing ethnographic research and in-depth interviews at a Taiwanese American Church in the greater Baltimore area, I develop a typology of three groups. I argue that they represent three different ways of handling Taiwanese ethno-political tensions alongside the Evangelical Christian desire to proselytize and be inclusive. Members of the first group, which I call “inclusives,” invoke Christian narratives of inclusivity to explain why they reject ethno-political divisions. Members of the second group, whom I call “compartmentalizers,” keep their ethno-political convictions separate from their Christianity. They stress ethno-political differences among Taiwanese, and do not believe in a united Taiwanese or Chinese people. However, for them, participation in the church is not at odds with their belief in political separateness. Members of the third group, the “conflicteds,” struggle to reconcile what to them are internally competing narratives. Specifically, while conflicteds consider their political and their religious beliefs jointly and acknowledge the importance of spreading God’s word to all regardless of ethnic identity, they reject the idea of one Taiwanese people, producing internal angst and awkward encounters.

Author

• Shirley Michelle Lung, Johns Hopkins University