Proselytising the Indigenous Majority

Chinese Christians and Interethnic Relations in East Malaysia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2145127
AutoresJifeng Liu (0000-0001-5479-5089, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, The Belt and Road Research Institute, Xiamen University, Xiamen, People’s Republic of China, autor de correspondencia)
Año2021
Volumen31
Número2
Páginas186-204
Fecha de publicación2021-04-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthropological Forum (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0066-4677 • E-ISSN: 1469-2902
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00664677.2021.1886904
OpenAlexW3130524129
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas23

The growing literature on diasporic Chinese Christians in both America and Europe does not address the position of Chinese Christians when encountering more dominant or even antagonistic religious or ethnic groups. This research considers Chinese Christian evangelism in Sarawak, Malaysia, towards indigenous Iban people. In Malaysia, ethnic Chinese Christians are both a religious and cultural minority, navigating the politics of ethnicity and Islamisation in a diverse, majority Muslim country. Drawing on the ethnography of Chinese Methodists in Sarawak, this article explores the ways in which Christianity is localised and involved in the relations between Chinese, Iban, and Malay people. Chinese Christians compete with the state’s agenda of Islamisation and pursue a sense of calling, morality and citizenship in a context of ethnic and religious diversity. By actively proselytising the indigenous people, rather than passively submitting to the state’s political arrangements, the Chinese Christian diaspora interacts with the indigenous majority and in so doing participates in domestic ethno-politics

China · Christianity · Citizenship · Context (archaeology) · Diaspora · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Evangelism · Indigenous · Malay · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Anthropology · Asian Studies and History · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · History · Law · Religious studies · Socioeconomic Development in Asia