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CHAPTER 9: CHINATOWN OR UPTOWN? SECOND-GENERATION CHINESE AMERICAN PROTESTANTS IN NEW YORK CITY
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CHAPTER 9 CHINATOWN OR UPTOWN? SECOND-GENERATION CHINESE AMERICAN PROTESTANTS IN NEW YORK CITY Karen Chai Kim It is seven o’clock on Friday night. A group of Chinese and Korean American evangelical Protestants gathers together in the midtown Manhattan apartment of a Chinese American investment banker for the regular meeting of their church-sponsored home fellowship. Seated in a circle on the living room floor, they begin the evening by distributing copies of the Cornell University Korean Christian Fellowship Songbook and singing several contemporary praise songs, accompanied by acoustic guitar. After the songs they take turns answering the icebreaker question of the week: “What is the most unpleasant experience you have had while living in New York City?” At the same time, a group of evangelical Chinese Americans sits in a sixthfloor classroom of a large church in Chinatown for its regular Friday night Bible study and fellowship. They also begin with a selection of praise songs, led by a few members, with lyrics projected onto a classroom wall by an overhead projector. A third group of evangelical Protestant Chinese Americans has gathered in their midtown church office location for a time of Bible study and fellowship. Each of these groups is sponsored by an evangelical Protestant church in Manhattan. Each of the churches has large numbers of second-generation Chinese Americans. However, the members of the first gathering attend a multiracial church, the members of the second group attend a Chinese church in Chinatown, and members of the third group attend an Upper West Side church for second-generation Chinese Americans. 257 INTRODUCTION Religion has long been one of the most important institutions for immigrants in the United States. Ethnic churches have been characterized as a “microcosm ” of the society that immigrants left behind, serving as a place to meet new people and maintain cultural traditions, as well as to seek spiritual comfort and meaning (Hurh and Kim 1990). In addition to these functions for the first generation, immigrants often believed that ethnic church attendance would help their children form friendships with co-ethnic peers and retain their cultural heritage. The fact is that the majority of Chinese Americans—of any generation— are not active in organized religion. However, just as the Chinese population has rapidly increased in the United States, the number of Chinese churches has grown steadily. Whereas there were only 65 Chinese Christian churches in the United States and Hawaii in 1952 (Cayton and Lively 1955), there are now over 750 Chinese ethnic Christian churches in the United States (Yang 1999; Ambassadors for Christ 2002). Although immigrants of Chinese descent have a lower participation rate in religious institutions than other groups, such as Korean immigrants, the Christian church stands as the most important social institution for Chinese Americans today (Yang 1999). Ironically , while Korean immigrants lament the fact that their children are leaving the ethnic churches, some non-Christian Chinese immigrants are surprised to discover that their children are active in evangelical Protestant ministries. Linguistic and cultural barriers may limit immigrants to membership in ethnic churches and temples, but their American-born and Americaneducated children experience no such limitations. Unlike many of their parents , second-generation Americans are fluent in English and have been educated in American schools. They therefore are better equipped to establish racially and ethnically diverse social networks. Whereas religious immigrants may deliberately seek out ethnic congregations, second-generation Chinese Americans who are interested in religion can potentially feel comfortable in many different types of churches. According to the results of the telephone survey portion of the Immigrant Second Generation in Metropolitan New York Study, 55 percent of the second-generation Chinese Americans said that they had no religion. However , 15 percent of second-generation Chinese Americans identified themselves as Protestant, 5 percent as Catholic, and 18 percent as Buddhist. Of those who claimed a religious affiliation, 37 percent attended church or other religious services. Of those who attended church, however, 70 percent attended churches that were mostly or all Chinese. This last statistic indicates that despite having grown up in the United States, second-generation Chi258 Becoming New Yorkers [18.207.98.249] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:34 GMT) nese Americans who attend religious services make a point to attend those that are predominantly Chinese. This chapter focuses on three groups of second-generation Chinese Americans in New York City. They attend one of three evangelical Protestant churches in Manhattan: “Chinatown Church”—an ethnic Chinese church located...