The Hybrid Spirit Animating Chinese Pentecostals in Malaysia
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University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2013 The Hybrid Spirit Animating Chinese Pentecostals in Malaysia Eu Kit Lim University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Asian Studies Commons, and the Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons Recommended Citation Lim, Eu Kit, "The Hybrid Spirit Animating Chinese Pentecostals in Malaysia" (2013). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 984. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/984 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. THE HYBRID SPIRIT ANIMATING CHINESE PENTECOSTALS IN MALAYSIA __________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology Joint PhD Program __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by Eu Kit Lim June 2013 Advisor: Jacob N. Kinnard ©Copyright by Eu Kit Lim 2013 All Rights Reserved Author: Eu Kit Lim Title: THE HYBRID SPIRIT ANIMATING CHINESE PENTECOSTALS IN MALAYSIA Advisor: Jacob N. Kinnard Degree Date: June 2013 ASBTRACT This dissertation interrogates the assertion in postcolonial scholarship, especially from the work of Homi Bhabha that the construction and performance of hybrid identities act as a form of resistance for marginalized communities against structures of oppression. While this study supports this assertion, it also critiques how hybridity fails to address issues of unequal power relations. This has led to an uncritical use of hybridity that reproduces the very idea of static identity which its proponents claim to transcend. Through qualitative study of Chinese members of a Pentecostal church in Malaysia, this study argues that church members engage in “unequal belonging” where they privilege certain elements of their identities over others. In concert with Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptions of habitus, field, and capital, unequal belonging highlights how hybridity fails to capture the intersecting and competing loyalties, strategies, and complexities of identity formation on a contextual level. Unequal belonging challenges postcolonial scholars to locate the subtle workings of power and privilege that manifest even among marginalized communities. The study first situates the Chinese through an analysis of the historical legacy of British colonialism that has structured the country’s current socio-political configuration along bounded categories of identification. The habitus constrains church members to accept certain Chinese ethnic markers as “givens.” Although they face continuous marginalization, interviewee data demonstrates that church members negotiate their ii Chineseness and construct a “Modern Chinese” ethnic identity as a strategic move away from Chinese stereotypes. Moreover, conversion to Christianity affords church members access to cultural capital. Yet, it is limited and unequal capital. In particular, the “Chinese Chinese,” who church members have demarcated as backward and traditional, are unable to gain access to this capital because they lack fluency in English and knowledge in modern, westernized worldviews. Unequal belonging nuances monolithic conceptions of hybridity. It demonstrates how church members’ privilege of Christianity over Chineseness exposes the complex processes of power and privilege that makes westernized-English-speaking Chinese Christians culturally “higher” than non-English-speaking, non-Christian, Chinese. This study provides significant contribution to the complex aspect of hybridity where it is both a site of resistance and oppression. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It takes a circus to write a dissertation. I owe my deepest and sincerest gratitude to all who have helped me with this project. I am truly indebted to my dissertation director, Dr. Jacob Kinnard, who worked tirelessly in helping me think through very complex theoretical stuff, read countless early chapter drafts, and prodded me to ask “so what” to every sentence in the manuscript. I also want to thank the rest of the dissertation committee, Dr. Katherine Turpin and Dr. Ginette Ishimatsu for their encouraging words and helpful suggestions. My thanks also to Dr. Debbie Creamer for her willingness to serve as the outside committee chair and provide a listening ear to my struggles. I also owe my sincerest thanks to the members of Metro Church for their willingness to openly share their life and stories with me. I have been truly blessed by their hospitality and warmth. My deepest gratitude to those who supported and commiserated with me throughout the writing process: My writing group, Julie Todd, Emily Kahm, Heike Peckruhn, and David Scott who provided helpful critiques, thoughtful suggestions, and delicious “feminist” cookies. Not to be left out are the helpful staff of Taylor Library at the Iliff School of Theology. Special thanks also to Sara Swenson, Midori Higa, Aaron Conley, Laurie Day, Nikki Allen, Keith Singer, Sophia Shafi, John Richardson, R.J. Hernández-Díaz, Rachel Lei, and Elizabeth Coody – wonderful people who kept me accountable and fed me food. I am truly thankful for their friendship and camaraderie. Last but not least, I thank my parents, Albert and Ann Lim, for their love, support, and patience as they waited and anguished for eight long years to see their son graduate with a Ph.D. degree. It is to them that I am dedicating this dissertation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ASBTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION: POSTCOLONIALISM AND HYBRIDITY (IN)ACTION....................................................................................................................... 1 The Future is Hybrid? Locating the Dissertation ............................................................ 3 The Field of Postcolonial Studies and the Question of Hybrid Identities....................... 8 The Anti-colonials .................................................................................................... 13 The “Professionalization” of Postcolonial Studies: Said, Bhabha, and Spivak ........ 23 Methodology ................................................................................................................. 39 Limitations: Positionality, Power and Representation .................................................. 44 Structuring the Argument ............................................................................................. 50 CHAPTER TWO: CHINESE MIGRATION TO MALAYSIA ....................................... 53 Early Chinese Migration to Malaysia ........................................................................... 59 The Chinese under British Rule .................................................................................... 64 Racializing Discourses .............................................................................................. 64 The Colonial Census ................................................................................................. 68 Divide and Rule ........................................................................................................ 74 The Chinese Immigrant Community ............................................................................ 79 The “Historic Bargain” and Independence ................................................................... 86 Postcolonial Malaysia: Constructing the “Other” in Chinese Identity ......................... 93 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 101 CHAPTER THREE: WHAT MAKES CHINESE “CHINESE?” .................................. 105 Habitus and Field ........................................................................................................ 108 Inherited Cultural Givens ............................................................................................ 111 The China Mystique and Confucian Values ........................................................... 111 Chinese Language ................................................................................................... 117 Chinese Business Savvy ......................................................................................... 119 Defining Chinese Ethnicity in Malaysia: Creating Ethnic Demarcations .................. 128 Malays and Non-Malays ......................................................................................... 128 The “Modern” Chinese and the “Chinese” Chinese ............................................... 133 Looking Beyond the Primordialist and Constructivist Approach ............................... 146 A Postcolonial Contribution to Identity ...................................................................... 149 Implications and Conclusion....................................................................................... 153 CHAPTER FOUR: CHRISTIANITY, CULTURAL CAPITAL, AND UNEQUAL ACCESS ......................................................................................................................... 157 Capital