Acknowledgements
This book began life as a doctoral thesis in the Anthropology programme at the Australian National University (ANU). It was then reconceptualised and revised in Germany, Singapore, and New Zealand. This book could not have been completed without the numerous interlocutors and colleagues who were instrumental to the research and writing. The shortcomings and errors that remain in this book are entirely mine. While there are too many individuals to be able to name all of them here, I wish to mention the following people and institutions who were invested in my research and supported me through this journey.
My deepest and most sincere thanks are to the overseas Chinese Christians I met in Shanghai. They opened their lives to me and made this book possible. Andrew Kipnis, Nicholas Tapp, and Tamara Jacka—members of my thesis committee—were crucial in helping me shape my thinking about religion, diaspora, and society. Their close readings of earlier drafts contributed greatly to the final form of this manuscript. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my thesis committee chair, Andy Kipnis. He has been my most constant mentor since I was a Masters student at the ANU and has been instrumental to my development as an anthropologist.
Generous funding from the ANU made it possible for me to conduct the research on which this book is based. A postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity gave me the time, space, and intellectual environment to reconceptualise the thesis and the opportunity to pursue further fieldwork in Shanghai. In the final stages of developing this book, crucial institutional support and funding from the University of Otago enabled me to focus fully on the manuscript. I am also grateful to Lisa Marr for vital editorial support in this period.
Numerous colleagues and friends supported and inspired me in the course of this study. I would like to thank Wendy Asche, Cao Nanlai, Lennon Chang, Sue Chen, Jayeel Cornelio, Gareth Fisher, Philip Fountain, Lim Chee Han, Wasan Panyagaew, Ma Khin Mar Mar Kyi, Aileen Paguntalan-Mijares, Prasert Rangkla, Sajida Tursun, and Yeh Shuling. Several of them were kind enough to read earlier versions of the chapters in this book and provided invaluable comments and suggestions. In one way or the other, all offered good cheer, conversations, walks, and food that nourished me. I would also like to thank Philip and Iris Fountain, as well as Jenny Alexander, for their kindness and generosity on my travels. Deserving special mention is Mia, who has been my unfailing source of support and friendship.
I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for Brill. Their comments offered me encouragement and suggestions for sharpening and broadening the argument in this book. An early version of chapter 2 appeared as “Centring Home in Mobility: Overseas Chinese Christians and the Construction of a Node of Religious Belonging in China” in the Asian Studies Review 41 (4): 611–28 (available online at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10357823.2017.1368448). I thank the editor and reviewers of the journal for their insightful feedback and suggestions.
This book is dedicated to my parents. Their unwavering support gave me the courage to keep trying.