Getting saved in America : Taiwanese immigration and religious experience / Carolyn Chen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chen, Carolyn, 1971-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Taiwanese Americans--Religion.

Taiwanese Americans.

Conversion.

Christianity.

Buddhism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (244 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What does becoming American have to do with becoming religious? Many immigrants become more religious after coming to the United States. Taiwanese are no different. Like many Asian immigrants to the United States, Taiwanese frequently convert to Christianity after immigrating. But Americanization is more than simply a process of Christianization. Most Taiwanese American Buddhists also say they converted only after arriving in the United States even though Buddhism is a part of Taiwan's dominant religion. By examining the experiences of Christian and Buddhist Taiwanese Americans, Getting Saved in America tells "a story of how people become religious by becoming American, and how people become American by becoming religious." Carolyn Chen argues that many Taiwanese immigrants deal with the challenges of becoming American by becoming religious. Based on in-depth interviews with Taiwanese American Christians and Buddhists, and extensive ethnographic fieldwork at a Taiwanese Buddhist temple and a Taiwanese Christian church in Southern California, Getting Saved in America is the first book to compare how two religions influence the experiences of one immigrant group. By showing how religion transforms many immigrants into Americans, it sheds new light on the question of how immigrants become American.

Contents:

Becoming religious by becoming American

From beautiful island to beautiful country : Taiwanese immigration and religion in Southern California

Becoming Christian : breaking traditions and making traditions

Becoming Buddhist : from embedded religion to explicit religion

Becoming American men and women : otherworldly narratives and this-worldly selves

Cultivating American saints : religious disciplines of the self

Becoming Americans : from migrants to pilgrims.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-225) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9786612157417

9781282157415

1282157418

9781400824175

1400824176

OCLC:

432996506