Transnational Taiwanese Protestant Organizations and Identity Formation
This dissertation delves into the dynamics of three transnational Taiwanese Protestant church organizations - PCT, EFC, and TPC under PC(USA) - analyzing shifts in ethnic, political, and national narratives of identity. Exploring the forces that drive these transformations, it investigates the construction and evolution of narratives of (Taiwanese) identity across different national contexts. Engaging with literatures on organizations, networks, and religious forms, the study provides insights into the complex interplay between geopolitics, domestic pressures, and values within these denominational organizations.
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Hyphenated Identities: Taiwanese Denominational Organizations and Transnational Taiwanese Identity Formation Shirley Lung The Johns Hopkins University slung1@jhu.edu
Introduction to Research Topic In order to answer these questions, my dissertation examines three interconnected transnational Taiwanese Protestant church organizations as its sites of investigation: the Taiwan-founded Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT), US-founded Evangelical Formosan Church (EFC), and the US-based Taiwanese Presbyterian Churches (TPC) under the largest Presbyterian denomination in the US, Presbyterian Church (USA) or PC(USA). I map out, populate, and animate the three organization s transnational religious landscape or their organizational field in order to sift out its specific social relations and attendant system of values in a contemporary context. Specifically, my study is interested in the shifting valuations of discourses of ethnic identity, political positions, and nationalism in these three organizations and how these valuations vary not only across organization but also throughout the transnational field that connects them. By understanding the transnational field in which they are embedded, I analyze the geopolitical and domestic pressures that impact and change its social relations and system of values, highlighting positive and negative as well as popular and unpopular narratives of Taiwanese (American) identity, US and Taiwan political stances, and nationalisms.
Research Questions Why do related denominational organizations mobilize around different ethnic, political, and national narratives of identity? Specifically, why did PCT, EFC, and TPC under PC(USA) shift positions, however slight or vast in degree, when they once shared similar identifications and a political mission during the Cold War years? How do related denominational organizations change across national contexts? What are the forces that drive these transformations? What kinds of narratives of (Taiwanese) identity do these denominational organizations construct and mobilize around? How does their valuation of these narratives of identity change over time and across national context?
Major Literatures First, my study engages with literature of organizations and networks from a Boudieusian standpoint for its conceptual framework (Bok 2020; Emirbayer & Johnson 2008; Gorski 2012; Vaughan 2008). Instead of analyzing these three interconnected Christian churches (denominations) in isolation, I embed them in their shared organizational field, examining their organizational habitus. I attend closely to shifting topography (and social relations) of the field as it crosses national borders. I also investigate the other religious and non-religious actors that inhabit this field for contextual reasons. Second, I engage with the literatures on religious forms, assemblages, and shapes (Bender, Cadge, and Levitt 2013; Bender 2010; Hurd 2008, 2015; Sullivan 2005, 2020). Active questions in my study are, what is religion? what is church? why do these religious organizations take the form they take? By deconstructing taken-for-granted religious forms, my study uncovers new meanings at the intersections of religion, politics, and ethnicity-making. Third, my study is in conversation with the literatures on Taiwanese identity-making as associated with religion, nationalism, and diaspora (Brown 2004; Chen 2008; Chan 2018; Chang 2005; Hsiau 2013, 2016, 2018; Hsu 2000, 2015). These diverse strains of literature historicize the multiple narratives of Taiwanese identity across various social domains where identity construction occurs.
Research Site and Case Selection 3 Interconnected Taiwanese Church Organizations in US and in Taiwan Evangelical Formosan Church (EFC) Taiwanese Presbyterian Churches (TPC) affiliated with PC(USA) Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) * PCT was founded by Canadian and Scottish missionaries in Taiwan during the nineteenth century. The Postwar years saw waves of migration from Taiwan to the US. Many founders of first TPC under PC(USA) and EFC have Presbyterian roots among other reformed church traditions. Today, PC(USA) is an official partner of PCT. EFC has local churches and a seminary in Taiwan.
Method and Approach I employ qualitative methods to investigate my research questions. I use snowball sampling to identify potential informants. I also conduct ethnographic interviews. First, I conduct ethnographic or digital ethnographic research at local churches of PCT, EFC, or PC(USA). I get to know congregants, the church culture, and the local networks of these congregations. I will connect data gathered at this level to interviews with other actors in the hierarchy. Second, I conduct in-depth semi-structured interviews with individuals at all levels of these hierarchical organizations from local churches to mid-council members to seminaries to general assembly. I also interview those I call contextual actors who inhabit the same transnational organizational field but not directly related to these three organization. Examples include actors from independent missions, other reformed tradition denominations (UCC, RCA, Lutheran, etc), Taiwanese American Associations, Taiwanese political organizations, World Council of Churches, among others.
Method and Approach Ethnographic and Digital Ethnography Bible study, Sunday worship services, church-organized trips, non-church organized activities, dinners and other potlucks, retreats, speaking events Artifacts Sunday worship programs, records of weekly attendance/offering, pamphlets, list-serv emails In-depth Interviews Ethnic identity, political stances, sources of news, religious experiences, thoughts on their organization Circumstances of organization s founding, controversies, factionalism, milestones, public and private political stances, religious and non-religious partners
Key Findings The founders of EFC and TPC under PC(USA) were Christian graduate students who immigrated from Taiwan, ROC to the US during the Cold War years. As a result, many of the narratives of ethnic, political, and national identity that they construct stem from Cold War events that may have salience in their organizational field, but not within greater society. While Cold War events do manifest in the social justice narratives of the PCT, narratives of identity within the PCT have also moved on to include more charismatic and evangelical undertones. As many of its Cold War social justice aims have been achieved, the PCT has become institutionalized as a prominent church with longevity. As these three organizations are related and connected, they are also reading each others narratives from their respective positions in the field. Their relationships with each other also depend on these readings that may or may not align with that of their own readings.
Conclusions Related denominational organizations that inhabit the same transnational organizational field may share similar ethnicity-based identifications, but their political and social priorities are differently transformed by national context. Specifically, the boundaries of the field do not neatly conform to national borders, so the topography of values and social relationships are not uniform across the entirety of field. As a result, the organizations construct and mobilize narratives of ethnic, national, and political identities based upon macro-level structures and forces that filtered through print and other forms of media. The language, political leanings, and availability of these media vary across national and even local contexts, leading to multiple imaginings of the same (ethnic) community. As such, the same narrative may hold different value according to one organization versus another even if they share similar political leanings, at a given point in time. Future studies of denominational and other religious organizations can employ the approach of mapping out the organizational field to better understand relationships between parent denominations and new ones, shed more light on organizational dynamics in transnational fields, and highlight boundary work between fields.
