Lida Nedilsky's study, Converts to Civil Society, shows that in choosing faith, the individuals she has followed over a period of ten years in Hong Kong move across the spheres of family, church, the workplace and civic organizations, and thereby enliven the public sphere and open new possibilities for change. She argues that when an individual convert to Christianity joins an NGO, a personal decision she defines as a “conversion to civil society,” s/he thereby embodies the process that binds together faith and democracy in contemporary Hong Kong. This is a rich ethnography that follows the daily lives of more than 50 individuals from the days before the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, until 2008. Nedilsky, a sociologist, has adroitly built a narrative along a few selected individuals whom she sees as emblematic of the trends she examines in the ten per cent of the population of Hong Kong that count themselves as Christian.
Following a theoretical introduction, in the remaining five chapters Nedilsky uses converts' experiences as a lens through which to view social trends. In the second chapter she describes the processes whereby young people first convert to Christianity, decisions she portrays as acts of volition, often against the wishes of their parents. She argues that Christianity, for these converts, fulfilled a need for self-affirmation and provided an opportunity for engaging in collective activities. In the third chapter she reveals the dilemmas faced by these converts, who often have adopted a world-view that sets them apart from family, friends, classmates and co-workers, but who nonetheless advocate a sense of concern for the community. The conundrum faced by converts, she argues, often finds a resolution when they join churches where they meet like-minded people. However, when such associations fail to offer guidance on how to meet the higher expectations their faith raises, she finds that many experience a second conversion. They move beyond the confines of their religious communities to the realm of NGOs, and thereby the sphere of civil society, where the introspective struggles over one's faith is replaced with participation in public debates and collective action. The fourth chapter describes the NGOs as a unique space in Hong Kong where Christians can reconcile their religious aspirations with their quest for a better society. Nedilsky offers us a good portrait of NGOs in general, and the importance of Christian NGOs among them. She argues that the possibility to move from one NGO to another in a way reinforces the initial decision to convert to Christianity. The fifth chapter raises the problem of continuity, pervasive among NGOs. A number of vignettes are used in the chapter to illustrate the different dimensions of the problem of finding leadership because of the pressures of individualism. Chapter six concludes with the issue of convergence and the lessons that can be learned from Hong Kong for understanding civil society in China, acknowledging the obvious differences in conditions between the Special Administrative Region and the rest of China.
The author has brought to bear a great combination of secondary sources in political philosophy and theology to frame her study and guide her along the collection and treatment of data presented in her meticulous ethnography. The sources for the latter are drawn from in-depth interviews, which she has followed up over a decade, and she has convincingly constructed individual archetypes to illustrate the social trends she had observed first hand. Out of this material, she develops an argument that runs clearly through this book, which is likely to generate its fair share of criticisms and endorsements alike. Nedilsky sees Christianity as a driving force in the broader pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. This claim is an important one, and it echoes a similar argument made about the role of Christianity in the Chinese democratic movement, an argument that a significant number of scholars researching religion in China make. Many of them do believe that religion, and in particular Christianity, has a democratic potential. This recalls a form of essentialism popular in 1960s American political science, when theories about the compatibility between liberal democracy and political cultures influenced by Protestant Christianity were popular. The implication of this approach was that other world-views were not compatible with democracy, and some famous scholars made a career with such claims. Nedilsky does not make that assertion so openly. But she does suggest that the conversion to Christianity is a passage obligé to civil society, itself a building block of democracy. Many people who do not have Christian belief, whether they are Buddhists, Daoists or atheists, may take offence with the argument that their religion or their world-view has a democratic deficit. This reservation aside, the detailed description of Chinese Christian individuals' transition in Hong Kong will appeal to those who want to know more about a vibrant outpost of Christianity in the Sinosphere.
