Overseas Chinese Christians in Contemporary China

Book excerpt: "Overseas Chinese Christians in Contemporary China explores how diasporic Chinese understandings of what it means to be Chinese is changing in post-1979 China. Ethnographically, it focuses on overseas Chinese Christian business people residing in Shanghai. Hyper-mobile, well-educated, and financially secure, these elites adopt a long-term view of their time in the country. This study examines how these elites put Christianity to work mediating their hopes, fears, and obligations in order to illuminate the ways in which this overseas Chinese experience departs from existing academic models of diasporic Chinese as either bridge-builders or pragmatic capitalists. By focusing on religion, this study offers novel insights into how overseas Chinese are making a place for themselves in a globalising and increasingly powerful China"--