Renegotiating locality and morality in a Chinese religious diaspora: Wenzhou Protestants in Paris, France

Abstract

This paper explores the social and economic implications of indigenous Christian discourses and practices in the Wenzhou Chinese diaspora in Paris, France. Popularly known as China’s Jerusalem, the coastal Chinese city of Wenzhou is home to thousands of self-started, homegrown Protestant churches and a million Protestants. Drawing on multi-sited fieldwork, the study provides an ethnographic account of a group of Wenzhou merchants who have formed large Christian communities at home, along with migrant enclaves in Paris. It shows how these Christian migrant entrepreneurs and traders have brought their version of Christianity from China to the West and how they perceive and deal with issues of illegality, moral contingency, native-place based loyalty and national belonging. Finally, it highlights the intertwined relationship between an indigenized Chinese Christianity and the petty capitalist legacy of coastal southeast China in a secularized European context.