Encounter, initiation, and commitment: Christian conversion among new Chinese migrants in Britain

This chapter examines different stages of conversion to Christianity among contemporary Chinese migrants in Britain. The Chinese has become the fourth largest ethnic minority group in Britain, yet their religious attachments and experiences have hitherto received scant scholarly attention. This chapter seeks to fill this research gap by providing explorative sociological accounts of the socio-religious dynamics of the Chinese Christian communities in Britain, with a main focus on religious conversion. The study takes a qualitative approach, employing in-depth interviews and multi-sited ethnography as the main investigative instruments. It draws on social scientific theories of religious conversion to develop a sequential framework for the discussion of typical conversion trajectories among Chinese Christian converts in Britain. The applied three-stage sequential model, which centres on encounter, initiation and commitment, helps us understand the dynamics of Christian conversion whilst also providing a theoretical framework for an analysis of religious community-building among Chinese migrants in Britain.