Protestantism among Vietnam Chinese: The Historical Trajectory of Hope

• In Event: Protestantism and This-Worldly Hope: Navigating Religion, Ethnicity and Class in Southeast Asian Economies

Abstract

After the fall of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), the Vietnam communists imposed a regime of control on the economic and religious life of the South. In the dismal space of Saigon, later renamed Ho Chi Minh City, Chinese suspected of being related to or oriented towards the Republic of China were detained and abused. In this climate of fear, some of these Chinese held on to their Protestant faith, seeking hope where the political climate was uncertain. This faith is passed on to their children, for whom the church defined their social class milieu in a rapidly transforming political economy.
Within the larger backdrop of the phenomenal growth of Protestant churches in Vietnam, mostly among tribal people and through the house church movement, this paper will examine the meaning of the Protestant faith for the ethnic Chinese. In particular, it will investigate how Chinese Protestants negotiate the socio-economic uncertainties that come with the implementation of Đổi Mới (Renovation), and how the intergenerational transference of religious persuasion served also as a strategy for entrenching class positions. In turn, the study of Protestant religious practice among Vietnam Chinese will demonstrate the nexus between ethnicity, class and religion as a discourse of hope within the materiality of the market economy.

Author

• Yew Foong Hui, Hong Kong Shue Yan University