During the early twentieth century, the “old-timer” generation of Chinese sojourners was declinin... more During the early twentieth century, the “old-timer” generation of Chinese sojourners was declining in numbers and influence across Canada and the United States. With a wave of Canadian- and US-born Chinese youth coming of age at this time, a shift in identity and culture took place within the old Chinatown communities. As the younger generation adopted new patterns of thought, leisure, and civic engagement, this generational shift coincided with campaigns for social reform and modernization in Republican China that also redefined Chinese image and identity for the modern age. During this period, Protestant Christian institutions, social networks, and belief system mediated between cultures and generational expectations by providing a respectable “third space” in which families and individuals could retain certain Chinese values while experimenting with and incorporating “Western” beliefs and behaviours. This paper maps the social and moral universe for the Chinese in Canada and the United States between 1910 and 1950, drawing from historical secondary sources while using Fifth Chinese Daughter, the memoir of American Chinese writer Jade Snow Wong, as a case study. To understand Protestant Christianity’s role in immigrants’ individual, family, and community lives, I analyze Wong’s memoir and other primary and secondary sources by adapting Robert Orsi’s concept of lived religion. To understand the Chinese Christians’ religious practice, I attend to four different dimensions: the limits of what can be felt and imagined in a given culture; the sensory perceptions that define the religious world and its practices; the society’s defining norms and social structures; and the tensions that underlie such structures. In combination with sociological frameworks from literature on late-twentieth century Chinese Evangelical immigrants, this approach permits me to trace elements of Christian identity and Protestant ideology in the Chinese immigrant experience and how they reconfigure two major spheres of the Chinese immigrant experience: that of family and home, and that of public and community life.
In the interest of providing historical context for recent studies of Chinese evangelical youth, ... more In the interest of providing historical context for recent studies of Chinese evangelical youth, this paper examines Christianity’s impact on identity, generational consciousness, and socio-political engagement among Chinese youth in early-20th-century North America. Bringing historical sources into conversation with current research reveals striking continuities in how Chinese youth – then and now – have used Christian identities and institutions to mediate between the cultural, social, and moral space of home and that of the Western society around them.
Arriving by the tens of thousands between 1980 to 2000, immigrants from Hong Kong form a distinct... more Arriving by the tens of thousands between 1980 to 2000, immigrants from Hong Kong form a distinct cohort within Canada’s growing Chinese population. Like many immigrants of this era, they arrived with religious networks and practices distinct from those in the existing Canadian religious landscape. Newcomers from Hong Kong soon established a sizeable Chinese evangelical community upon its arrival, and its rapid growth exemplifies two global trends: the rise of “charismatic” Christianities, and the shift toward “global South” Christianities no longer based in the West. Rooted in Hong Kong’s influential Christian bourgeoisie, Canada’s Chinese evangelical imaginary is composed of transnational and translocal networks in major cities. Although some Chinese churches are among the largest churches in Canada, Chinese evangelicals remain largely segregated from the broader Canadian Christian landscape and are all but absent from Canadian religious histories. Today's narrative of religious practice in Canada is preoccupied with the rise of the religious “nones,” or alternatively with the rise of religious “others” whose communities come under scrutiny for signs of alienation or extremism. Elided in these narratives of declension and difference is the proliferation of immigrant communities which are ethno-culturally distinct, yet fall under the umbrella of Canada's dominant religion. Immigrant Christianities – whose expressions reflect local and global histories, cultures, and economic factors – slip easily under the radar. By outlining the migration history of one particular immigrant demographic and tracing the origins and scope of its transnational ethnoreligious imaginary, this paper establishes a foundation for future inquiry into not only Chinese evangelicalism in Canada, but also into how immigrants’ ethnoreligious practices may soon transform Canada’s social, political, and religious landscapes.
During the early twentieth century, the “old-timer” generation of Chinese sojourners was declinin... more During the early twentieth century, the “old-timer” generation of Chinese sojourners was declining in numbers and influence across Canada and the United States. With a wave of Canadian- and US-born Chinese youth coming of age at this time, a shift in identity and culture took place within the old Chinatown communities. As the younger generation adopted new patterns of thought, leisure, and civic engagement, this generational shift coincided with campaigns for social reform and modernization in Republican China that also redefined Chinese image and identity for the modern age. During this period, Protestant Christian institutions, social networks, and belief system mediated between cultures and generational expectations by providing a respectable “third space” in which families and individuals could retain certain Chinese values while experimenting with and incorporating “Western” beliefs and behaviours. This paper maps the social and moral universe for the Chinese in Canada and the United States between 1910 and 1950, drawing from historical secondary sources while using Fifth Chinese Daughter, the memoir of American Chinese writer Jade Snow Wong, as a case study. To understand Protestant Christianity’s role in immigrants’ individual, family, and community lives, I analyze Wong’s memoir and other primary and secondary sources by adapting Robert Orsi’s concept of lived religion. To understand the Chinese Christians’ religious practice, I attend to four different dimensions: the limits of what can be felt and imagined in a given culture; the sensory perceptions that define the religious world and its practices; the society’s defining norms and social structures; and the tensions that underlie such structures. In combination with sociological frameworks from literature on late-twentieth century Chinese Evangelical immigrants, this approach permits me to trace elements of Christian identity and Protestant ideology in the Chinese immigrant experience and how they reconfigure two major spheres of the Chinese immigrant experience: that of family and home, and that of public and community life.
In the interest of providing historical context for recent studies of Chinese evangelical youth, ... more In the interest of providing historical context for recent studies of Chinese evangelical youth, this paper examines Christianity’s impact on identity, generational consciousness, and socio-political engagement among Chinese youth in early-20th-century North America. Bringing historical sources into conversation with current research reveals striking continuities in how Chinese youth – then and now – have used Christian identities and institutions to mediate between the cultural, social, and moral space of home and that of the Western society around them.
Arriving by the tens of thousands between 1980 to 2000, immigrants from Hong Kong form a distinct... more Arriving by the tens of thousands between 1980 to 2000, immigrants from Hong Kong form a distinct cohort within Canada’s growing Chinese population. Like many immigrants of this era, they arrived with religious networks and practices distinct from those in the existing Canadian religious landscape. Newcomers from Hong Kong soon established a sizeable Chinese evangelical community upon its arrival, and its rapid growth exemplifies two global trends: the rise of “charismatic” Christianities, and the shift toward “global South” Christianities no longer based in the West. Rooted in Hong Kong’s influential Christian bourgeoisie, Canada’s Chinese evangelical imaginary is composed of transnational and translocal networks in major cities. Although some Chinese churches are among the largest churches in Canada, Chinese evangelicals remain largely segregated from the broader Canadian Christian landscape and are all but absent from Canadian religious histories. Today's narrative of religious practice in Canada is preoccupied with the rise of the religious “nones,” or alternatively with the rise of religious “others” whose communities come under scrutiny for signs of alienation or extremism. Elided in these narratives of declension and difference is the proliferation of immigrant communities which are ethno-culturally distinct, yet fall under the umbrella of Canada's dominant religion. Immigrant Christianities – whose expressions reflect local and global histories, cultures, and economic factors – slip easily under the radar. By outlining the migration history of one particular immigrant demographic and tracing the origins and scope of its transnational ethnoreligious imaginary, this paper establishes a foundation for future inquiry into not only Chinese evangelicalism in Canada, but also into how immigrants’ ethnoreligious practices may soon transform Canada’s social, political, and religious landscapes.
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Conference Presentations by Helen Mo
This paper maps the social and moral universe for the Chinese in Canada and the United States between 1910 and 1950, drawing from historical secondary sources while using Fifth Chinese Daughter, the memoir of American Chinese writer Jade Snow Wong, as a case study. To understand Protestant Christianity’s role in immigrants’ individual, family, and community lives, I analyze Wong’s memoir and other primary and secondary sources by adapting Robert Orsi’s concept of lived religion. To understand the Chinese Christians’ religious practice, I attend to four different dimensions: the limits of what can be felt and imagined in a given culture; the sensory perceptions that define the religious world and its practices; the society’s defining norms and social structures; and the tensions that underlie such structures. In combination with sociological frameworks from literature on late-twentieth century Chinese Evangelical immigrants, this approach permits me to trace elements of Christian identity and Protestant ideology in the Chinese immigrant experience and how they reconfigure two major spheres of the Chinese immigrant experience: that of family and home, and that of public and community life.
Talks by Helen Mo
Papers by Helen Mo
This paper maps the social and moral universe for the Chinese in Canada and the United States between 1910 and 1950, drawing from historical secondary sources while using Fifth Chinese Daughter, the memoir of American Chinese writer Jade Snow Wong, as a case study. To understand Protestant Christianity’s role in immigrants’ individual, family, and community lives, I analyze Wong’s memoir and other primary and secondary sources by adapting Robert Orsi’s concept of lived religion. To understand the Chinese Christians’ religious practice, I attend to four different dimensions: the limits of what can be felt and imagined in a given culture; the sensory perceptions that define the religious world and its practices; the society’s defining norms and social structures; and the tensions that underlie such structures. In combination with sociological frameworks from literature on late-twentieth century Chinese Evangelical immigrants, this approach permits me to trace elements of Christian identity and Protestant ideology in the Chinese immigrant experience and how they reconfigure two major spheres of the Chinese immigrant experience: that of family and home, and that of public and community life.