“We Are All Children of God”: The Intersectionality of Religion, Race and Ethnicity, and Immigration in Chinese Churches in Memphis, Tennessee

ABSTRACT

The Chinese (including the Taiwanese) are one of the fastest growing immigrant groups in the greater Memphis area. In a southern midsize city like Memphis where Chinese are less concentrated, Chinese churches are major spaces for social gatherings among the Chinese community. By using ethnography, interviews, content analysis of church websites, program brochures, and testimonies, this article explores the intersectionality of religion, race, ethnicity, and immigration through the example of the Chinese Christian community in Memphis. The research demonstrates that Christian conversion among Chinese in the United States is not linear assimilation. Rather, race, ethnicity, or nationality and Christian identity are not exclusive, but complementary. Christian identity legitimatizes U.S. identity, preserves and reproduces Chinese identity, shapes pan-Chineseness, and serves as a “cushion” for Chinese-American youth in the face of ambiguity between Chinese and U.S. identity. Chinese churches are Chinese space in the United States, where Chinese Christians could be American in a Chinese way, and practice Chineseness in a Christian way. It is the intersectionality of multiple identities through churches that differentiates Chinese churches from non-ethnic churches and nonreligious ethnic organizations.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese Christians
• Chinese churches
• identity
• intersectionality
• Memphis