Ethnic and Transnational Dimensions of Recent Protestant Conversion among the Hmong in Northern Vietnam
Author(s):
Ngo, Thi Thanh Tam
Format:
Journal article
Citation:
Social Compass, Volume 57, Issue 3 (2010-09). pp. 332-344.
Language:
English
Abstract:
The author argues that ethnic and transnational dimensions are crucial to an understanding of the conversion of the Hmong to Protestantism in Northern Vietnam. Although a number of scholars have proposed that the study of religion be incorporated into the study of transnationalism, the "transnationalization" of religion is still rather understudied, and there have been few scholarly efforts to analyze the transnational aspects of the conversions to world religions of marginalized ethnic minority groups in countries with high levels of emigration. The author examines the transnationalization of religion via the case of the Hmong conversion to show that the impact of missionization is twofold, as not only does the habitus of the Hmong in Vietnam change through massive conversion but so also does the subjectivity of the Hmong missionaries. She proposes to conceptualize the evangelical mission of the Hmong diasporas in Vietnam in particular and in Asia in general as a form of "remittance of faith and modernity". [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright Social Compass.]