Merchants and missionaries: Chinese evangelical networks and the transnational resacralization of European urban spaces

Chinese evangelical networks are reshaping European urban spaces, such as Rome's historic centre, by merging business migration with religious practices. These transnational merchants, originating from rural China, adopt evangelical Christianity to anchor their diaspora identity and link China to Europe through spiritual and economic ties. They resacralize secular real estate and infuse historic urban areas with evangelistic meanings, reflecting a global hierarchy of places where the peripheral local contrasts with the modern global centre in market economies. This study, based on multisited ethnographic fieldwork in Wenzhou, Rome, and Paris, reveals how religion and commerce intersect to redefine transnational practices.

Cao, N. (2022). Merchants and missionaries: Chinese evangelical networks and the transnational resacralization of European urban spaces. Global Networks, 23(3), 541–556. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12385