Research (Week 1): Taiwanese Protestant Church

On Sunday, I visited the Taiwanese Protestant church to search for subjects. Leo, an Argentine I met that is studying at a Chinese university also came. He is writing his thesis on how people learn Chinese in Buenos Aires.

Here I saw all segments of Chinese society. There were Chinese and Taiwanese, young and old, new immigrant and old immigrant, and even some Argentines. Many of the kids were playing basketball and they spoke exclusively in Spanish. Older members conversed in Taiwanese, and others spoke a mix of Mandarin and Spanish. There were three services in three languages throughout the day: Taiwanese in the morning, Spanish at noon, and Mandarin in the afternoon.

The pastor, Fan Hsien-Chao greeted me warmly. He's getting his Master's in theology and often visits Chinese churches in other Latin American countries. After I stated my purpose, he said he would arrange for me to meet various people from various immigrant generations with different degrees of assimilation. He also suggested that I go visit Buddhist and Taoist institutions to get the full picture.

One point of interest that me mentioned: Although there is generally little discrimination from Argentines, many educated second-generation Chinese have found it hard to obtain higher level jobs. He said that they often leave the country, either going back to Asia or heading to the United States. This could be a starting point to focus on.

He also mentioned the "passerby" mentality of Chinese immigrants. Many poorer immigrants from China don't have much intent to stay permanently, and when they have children they send them back to China for their families to raise. However, the parents often bring these children back to Argentina as they grow older. Fan said that these children often have a hard time adjusting and many of them join gangs.

Pastor Fan then asked me if I wanted some rice-alcohol chicken soup, a Taiwanese favorite for cold weather. "Just to warn you, we accidentally put too much alcohol in it," he said. Of course I didn't mind, and asked for another bowl. However, I looked around and realized that the whole room was full of people with beet-red faces, and some were even staggering. What a great day at church!

I also briefly spoke with Juan Zhang, a Chinese immigrant from Shandong who came when he was 10. He said that "there were three years of my life when I was confused about my identity, but now I am 100% sure that I am Chinese."

Laura Lin moved here when she was one year old from Taiwan, but she learned enough Chinese to actually teach at one of the Chinese schools. She credits her parent's strict upbringing and her interest in Chinese comics and movies in her success in retaining the language. However, she feels neither Taiwanese nor Argentine. Her husband is a Argentine-born Chinese who isn't as proficient in the language. He speaks to her mostly in Spanish. She wants her children to learn Chinese, but she said that she isn't going to enforce it. However, she also mentioned the trend of Chinese learning among Argentines. "If Argentines are learning Chinese now, the we should even more learn it!"

Maybe this could tie the two place I visited together - how the trend of learning Chinese language and culture in Argentine mainstream society actually pushes Chinese communities to be more aware about the importance in preserving Chinese culture in future generations.

All this from just four days of research. I'll be visiting more places next week, and I have a feeling it might be a bit overwhelming. I'll probably need to narrow down my scope and identify a focus by the third week.