Constructing China's Jerusalem

Christians, Power, and Place in Contemporary Wenzhou

Nanlai Cao

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780804773607, 9780804770804
• eBook ISBN: 9780804776424
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth life history interviews, this illuminating book provides an intimate portrait of contemporary Chinese Christianity in the context of a modern, commercialized economy. In vivid detail, anthropologist Nanlai Cao explores the massive resurgence of Protestant Christianity in the southeastern coastal city of Wenzhou—popularly referred to by its residents as "China's Jerusalem"—a nationwide model for economic development and the largest urban Christian center in China.

Cao's study of Chinese Christians delves into the dynamics of activities such as banqueting, network building, property acquisition, mate selection, marriage ritual, migrant work, and education. Unlike previous research that has mainly looked at older, rural, and socially marginalized church communities, Cao trains his focus on economically powerful, politically connected, moralizing Christian entrepreneurs. In framing the city of Wenzhou as China's Jerusalem, newly rich Chinese Christians seek not only to express their leadership aspirations in a global religious movement but also to assert their place, identity, and elite status in post-reform Chinese society.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Maps, Illustrations, and Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction: Putting Christianity and Capitalism in Their Place
• Chapter 2: The Rise of “Boss Christians” and Their Engagement with State Power
• Chapter 3: Of Manners, Morals, and Modernity: Cosmopolitan Desires and the Remaking of Christian Identity
• Chapter 4: The Business of Religion in the “Wenzhou Model” of Christian Revival
• Chapter 5: Gendered Agency, Gender Hierarchy, and Religious Identity Making
• Chapter 6: Conversion to Urban Citizenship: Rural Migrant Workers’ Participation in Wenzhou Christianity
• Chapter 7: Conclusion: Religious Revivalism as a Moral Discourse of Modernity
• Character List
• Notes
• References
• Index