Transculturalism in the Sinophone Church: A Comparative Study of Chinese American and Chinese Korean Christian Identity Formation and Belonging

This presentation examines the role of Christian faith in identity formation and communal belonging among Chinese American and Chinese Korean Christians. Christianity, given its universalist assumptions regarding one God over all creation, provides inherently transcultural resources for shaping self and community perceptions. In both the United States and South Korea, Chinese migrant churches provide practical and relational resources for settling and building community. But behind these well attested phenomena is a complex negotiation of culture and identity for Sinophone Christians whose national, ethnic, and cultural belongings resist simple categorization. This research, based on interviews and participant observation with Chinese American and Chinese Korean Christians and congregations, investigates and compares how Sinophone Christians of multi-cultural backgrounds utilize their faith to make transcultural sense of their migratory contexts and situations.