A history of Chinese immigrants encounter with Canadian Protestant
missionaries, "His Dominion" and the "Yellow Peril" Protestant Missions
to Chinese Immigrants in Canada, 1859-1967, analyzes the evangelizing
activities of missionaries and the role of religion in helping Chinese
immigrants affirm their ethnic identity in a climate of cultural
conflict.
Jiwu Wang argues that, by working toward a vision of Canada that
espoused Anglo-Saxon Protestant values, missionaries inevitably
reinforced popular cultural stereotypes about the Chinese and widened
the gap between Chinese and Canadian communities. Those immigrants who
did embrace the Christian faith felt isolated from their community and
their old way of life, but they were still not accepted by mainstream
society. Although the missionaries' goal was to assimilate the Chinese
into Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture, it was Chinese religion and
cultural values that helped the immigrants maintain their identity and
served to protect them from the intrusion of the Protestant missions.
Wang documents the methods used by the missionaries and the responses
from the Chinese community, noting the shift in approach that took place
in the 1920s, when the clergy began to preach respect for Chinese ways
and sought to welcome them into Protestant-Canadian life. Although in
the early days of the missions, Chinese Canadians rejected the
evangelizing to take what education they could from the missionaries, as
time went on and prejudice lessened, they embraced the Christian faith
as a way to gain acceptance as Canadians.
