Towards A Sub-cultural Identityapproach

Located in northern Shandong Province,the Dong-Yang Village has a population of nearly 1000 people,90% of whom are Catholics.There is a church in the village,where Mass is held every week.Its villagers obey shared Catholic teachings and rules,actively take part in religious practices and pray to God devoutly.Catholic influences can be seen in almost every aspect of villagers' lives,including marital and burial rituals and values,etc.This paper aims to explore the Catholic identity formation process so as to reveal how religious identities can be constructed,maintained and enacted.In order to better understand and illustrate the process,Peek's three-stage model is referred to,the Social Identity Theory is cited as the theoretical framework,in-depth interviews and literature review are employed.Results show that despite subtle differences,the first two stages--religion as ascribed identity and religion as chosen identity--of Peek's model generally fits the case here.Though villagers don't possess obvious exterior features,they still encounter confusion caused by the discrepancies between Catholic teachings and atheism advocated by the social environment.In order to reconcile the differences and regain their faith,villagers adopt strategies like negation and conceptual clarification and use faith testimony stories as catalysts.Self-categorization,social comparison and positive distinctiveness of The Social Identity Theory helps explain the identity as chosen stage and provides high self-esteem.In conclusion,the Catholic sub-cultural group formed due to interactions between Chinese culture and Catholic culture exhibits its distinctiveness,which is embodied in ritual and values of marriage and death,as well as in festival celebrations.The Catholic sub-cultural group,a product of intercultural communications of the New Area,is well accepted by the mainstream society with its telling distinctive features.