Missionary-self and mission others: the identity of Chinese missionaries from a Trinitarian perspective

Despite the rise of the PRC Chinese missionary movement over the past 20 years, there has been hardly any research on how the identity of Chinese missionaries affects the relationship with their mission ‘Others’ in the field. The purposes of this thesis are, firstly, to explore the key factors in Chinese missionaries’ identity construction as they engaged in cross-cultural missions. The second purpose is to use Trinitarian traits to respond to identity construction among Chinese missionaries to help them in their awareness of their own identity and so promote the creation of fruitful relationships with their mission ‘Others’.

To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the Chinese missionary identity, I combined the discourses of identity presented by Chinese and Western scholars on the construction of the Chinese missionaries’ identity. Through in-depth interviews, I collected the stories of 52 missionaries from China. Using Narrative Inquiry, I was able to provide a thick description of the challenges they faced due to their identity as they crossed cultures. I then used a multidisciplinary perspective to synthesise a sociological, philosophical, and theological approach to address these challenges.

Despite 70 years of Communist governance, it was found that Confucian values still strongly impacted Chinese missionary identity. Familism, Face culture and authoritarianism all played a vital role in relationships. The findings showed that the Chinese missionary identity was influenced by social class and a Han-centric ethnocentrism which led to nationalism. In the religious sphere there was a strong emphasis on suffering for the gospel, a conservative theology focused on following tradition, and Pentecostalism, which explained conflicts as due to power encounters.

Finally, ‘Tridentity’, a new paradigm based on four Trinitarian traits, is presented in the hope that it will enable future Chinese Missionaries to overcome identity challenges in cross-cultural service.