Description
Book SynopsisThis work covers the largest contemporary wave of new immigrants to Chinatown. It examines the role of these religious communities in the immigrant incorporation process in Chinatown's highly stratified ethnic enclave. It shows how these networks transmit religious and social dynamics to the US.
Trade ReviewChock full of great quotes and insights, Ken Guests eight years of fieldwork and research has produced a wonderful study on the role of religious networks in transnational migration. While mindful of exploitation and geopolitics, Guest zeroes in on the decisions and meanings migrants make of their own lives for themselves and for their families. -- John Kuo Wei Tchen,author of New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Making of American Culture, 1776-1882
This path-breaking work offers a new angle from which to appreciate the resiliency of new immigrants. The Fuzhounese are shown using religious institutions to build supportive networks to help them cope with debt burdens, family separations, tenuous immigration status and the dehumanizing effects of working under sweatshop conditions. -- Peter Kwong,author of Forbidden Workers: Chinese Illegal Immigrants and American Labor
The excellent vignettes throughout the book further show, in striking detail, how immigrants from Fuzhou use the language and ideas of their faith traditions to make sense of their journeys and their daily lives in the United States. This book is a welcome addition to recent research about religion and the post-1965 immigrants. * Contemporary Sociology *
God in Chinatown is an important study for historians and social scientists. Guest has . . . expanded the horizons of students of ethnic history. * Journal of American Ethnic History *
God in Chinatown is useful for historians as well as those interested in the sociology of religion, the Chinese Diaspora, or New York City. * Religious Studies Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Walking on Water 1 Chinatown and the Fuzhounese 2 Fuzhou: Diasporic Traditions3 Religion in Fuzhou: An Overview4 Religion in Fuzhou: Spotlight on Christianity 5 Chinatown's Religious Landscape: The Fuzhounese Presence 6 "Come unto Me All Ye That Labor and Are Heavy Laden": Building Fuzhounese Protestant Churches in New York's Chinatown7 Safe Harbor Bibliography Index About the Author
