About the Event:
In Hong Kong beginning in March 2019, yet another movement gained momentum, this time to protest a bill that would allow extradition of suspects to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong did not have an extradition agreement, including Mainland China. The U.S. media portrayed this unrest from an angle that lionized young people on a tiny island enclave struggling against an overbearing Goliath. However, on the ground, the perspectives were more nuanced. Within the Christian community, opinions varied regarding how far to take the protests, and how much support churches should lend. The divisions left a lasting mark.
Sociologist Lida Nedilsky, who has followed the involvement of Catholics and Protestants in Hong Kong’s civic life of throughout her career, lends insightful perspective regarding the contributions of Hong Kong Christians to the territory’s civic culture, the impact this involvement has had on the churches, and the unfolding implications of the current crackdown pursued by Beijing.
About Lida Nedilsky:
Lida V. Nedilsky is a Professor of Sociology at North Park University. Her research interests focus on China, particularly how religious people in Hong Kong get engaged in political issues. Dr. Nedilsky is the author of Converts to Civil Society: Christianity and Political Culture in Contemporary Hong Kong (Baylor 2014) and contributor to Shun-hing Chan and Jonathan W. Johnson's Citizens of Two Kingdoms: Civil Society and Christian Religion in Greater China (Brill 2021). She also serves on the Academic Advisory Board of Tripod, a publication of the Holy Spirit Study Centre of the Diocese of Hong Kong.
The Presentation:
Further Resources:
Converts to Civil Society: Christianity and Political Culture in Contemporary Hong Kong
by Lida V. Nedilsky, Ph.D.
Lida V. Nedilsky captures the public ramifications of a personal, Christian faith at the time of Hong Kong’s pivotal political turmoil. From 1997 to 2008, in the much-anticipated reintegration of Hong Kong into Chinese sovereignty, she conducted detailed interviews of more than fifty Hong Kong people and then followed their daily lives, documenting their involvement at the intersection of church and state.
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