In Getting Saved in America, Carolyn Chen analyzes the phenomenon of conversion and the increased religiosity among recent Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Her sociological study of the dynamics of religion and identity within Taiwanese-American communities offers one of the few detailed analyses of religious diversity within a single ethnic community. Focusing on recent immigrants in the Taiwanese ethnoburb of San Gabriel Valley, Chen notes that religious participation intensifies after the experiences of migration precisely because it is through religion that individuals can rework the self and transform the bonds of community that have been severed by leaving Taiwan.

Chen's study begins with an overview of previous sociological studies of religion and immigration (Chapter 1) and then moves into an analysis of the particular context of Taiwanese immigration to explore the differences between early European immigration and contemporary post-1965 immigration (Chapter 2). The study then focuses on the processes of Taiwanese conversions to evangelical Christianity after arrival in the United States and the movement from what the author calls embedded Buddhism to explicit Buddhist identities following immigration and the motivations for such changes in religious identity. Chapters 4 and 5 offer a gendered analysis of becoming American men and women in the context of religion and an examination of newfound religious discipline in the lives of new Taiwanese-Americans. Central to her analysis is the process through which Taiwanese become American through their religious lives and how they become religious by becoming American. Rather than seeing the immigrant religious community as an insular site for the maintenance of ethnic identity, Chen argues that the voluntary nature of religion indicates that Taiwanese immigrant religiosity is an inherently American project. Thus, as Chen argues, to be religious is to become American and to be American is to be religious.

Getting Saved in America is solidly grounded in the sociology of religion, yet breaks with previous studies of Nineteenth and early Twentieth-century religion and immigration to account for the new types of immigrant groups that have arrived in the United States following the Immigration Act of 1965. These contemporary immigrants differ widely from early immigrants from Europe; therefore, as Chen notes, studies of religion and immigration must take into account the fact that while migration can be universally understood as a challenge to the self, the experience of that migration differs greatly according to social location, class, religion, region, race, and ethnicity. Chen uniquely argues that for Taiwanese immigrants, becoming religious in America can have the effect of rupturing the ties that bind a community together. In her study, participants who are largely middle to upper middle-class highly educated Taiwanese, the ties that bind are the moral webs of obligation that Confucianism weaves.

Through her 50 interviews with Buddhists and evangelical Christians at Dharma Light and Grace Evangelical church in Southern California, field work, and participant observation, Chen discovers that becoming Christian and becoming Buddhist often signifies a dramatic break from what are deemed the oppressive aspects of Confucian traditions, which results in the creation of new religious communities that serve as close facsimiles to what were considered the highlights of the previous webs of obligation — social cohesion, co-ethnicity, and friendship, to name a few. This study of Asian-American religious traditions still gives one pause to consider whether or not the Confucian tradition can be so clearly opposed and discarded. Rather than an all or nothing approach that Chen suggests, it might be more effective to explore how these newly adopted religions and Confucianism can exist simultaneously to help contemporary immigrants negotiate the often messy terrain of the new land.

Despite her discovery that many Taiwanese immigrants become American by becoming religious, Chen notes that for evangelical Christians, there is little explicit rhetoric aimed at engaging in the larger culture of Southern California. Because the Taiwanese church espouses Christianity, its position in American society is less exotic than that of the Buddhists. Therefore, with Christianity as a legitimating and normalizing factor, there does not seem to be much need for civic engagement beyond the local Taiwanese community. While the definition of being American is often voiced in terms of personal freedoms that are gained by breaking from Confucianism and family demands, this understanding of being American seems to isolate Taiwanese Americans from engagement with the larger multi-racial landscape.

What would be helpful to know more about in Chen's work is what it really means for Taiwanese to be American. Are there qualifiers that should be used here that indicate that to be Christian means to be Taiwanese-American? Certainly, the experience of immigration and becoming a racial minority makes being American for Taiwanese different from being a third generation Japanese-American. In this respect, it would be helpful to note that for most immigrants, being American is an ambivalent term fraught with tension and anxiety. Without engaging more in the definition of what it means to become explicitly American for Taiwanese immigrants leaves the vexing question of identity underexamined. Similarly, in such an explicit study of what it means to be American, more attention could be paid to the political engagement of the Taiwanese immigrants both within the ethnic community and beyond. A discussion of the ways in which temple and church affiliation impedes or facilitates political engagement and participation in the United States seems crucial to explore.

Nonetheless, Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience will be an invaluable addition to the fields of sociology and religion, religion and immigration, Asian American studies and Ethnic Studies and illuminative for both students and scholars.