Nellie Chu

My project studies the growing numbers of pastor-entrepreneurs from the Congo, Liberia, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, and South Korea who have settled in the historic port of Guangzhou. The combination of their ministries with their entrepreneurial endeavors in Guangzhou has challenged assumptions that industrialization and financial expansion in post-socialist China are entirely secular and state-driven projects. Their activities also highlight the racial and ethnic dynamics of transnational migration and global capitalism that shape China’s post-socialist transformations. My work shows how African and Korean pastors who have established churches in Guangzhou link transnational Christian and business ties with their aspirational pursuits for entrepreneurial and religious freedom.