Information Sharing in a Nordic Chinese Christian Church

Abstract

China is a country with great diversity and a long history of migration so cultural differences and cultural mixture can be found in the Chinese communities outside of China. This paper looks into how the diversity among Chinese immigrants in Sweden that would lead to the differences and challenges in sharing information with each other. The study is conducted in Nordic Chinese Christian church. In-depth interviews and participant observations are taken as the method. Possible influencing factors including cultural background, language, educational level, age are the focuses of this study. The impacts of religion and mixed factors issues are discussed as well. From the findings, it is noticed that generally there is a joint influence of cultural background, language, fellowship, and education on the information sharing, but it is also found that the main factors influencing the three types of information sharing vary from each other. The study points to the need for studying the changes between new Chinese immigrants and older Chinese immigrants. Attention to the second generation of immigrants in Sweden, and diversity challenges to church or in the field of religion is needed as well.