| Although the constitution of the United States has established the principle of "separation of church and state",religion is still one of the important factors affecting American politics.Looking at the six US presidential elections since the 21 st century,religion has always had more or less influence on the election results,such as the election of George W.Bush in 2004,the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and the election of Donald Trump in 2016.Under the political and social background of the United States with strong religious color,the religious beliefs of ethnic Chinese as a minority group have also undergone new changes in the 21 st century.First of all,the religious beliefs of Chinese Americans are still dominated by Christianity and Buddhism.Among them,the proportion of Christian belief is increasing,and Chinese Americans’ religious organizations(including Christian organizations and Buddhist organizations)are flourishing.Secondly,both Chinese Americans’ Christian organizations and Buddhist organizations tend to highlight the characteristics of Chinese traditional culture to attract new believers and highlight their unique values.These changes have also had corresponding political impacts.In the 2016 U.S.presidential election,the evangelical Christians of Chinese Americans demonstrated their enthusiasm for political participation through high-profile support for the Republican presidential candidate Trump.This behavior broke the stereotype of Chinese American voters who have always been politically apathetic and inclined to support the Democratic Party.This behavior,mobilizing the Chinese American community to participate in electoral politics,has also created unprecedented divisions among Chinese American voters.This phenomenon brings the influence of religion into the perspective of the study of Chinese American political participation and leads to the research question of this paper,Does religious belief affect the political participation of Chinese Americans? If so,how does religious belief affect the political participation of Chinese Americans?Based on the five US presidential elections since the 21 st century and with the help of the analysis method of political socialization,this paper uses the statistics of poll data and the cases in the election years to analyse and explore the influence of religious values and religious organizations on the political concepts and behaviors of Chinese Americans.Through analysing and studying,it is found that religious beliefs have an impact on the political concepts and political behaviors of Chinese Americans.Meanwhile,due to the different religious factions,different ways of influence and different groups affected,religious beliefs seemingly have contradictory effects.Based on the above research,this paper attempts to demonstrate the following hypotheses:(1)By creating the necessary material environment for political participation,religious organizations integrate their internal Chinese Americans’ political forces.(2)By splitting the political orientation of Chinese Americans,religious values lead to the split of the political forces of Chinese Americans.(3)Under the influence of religious beliefs,the political forces of Chinese Americans show a trend of integration of small groups and division of large groups.Taking religious beliefs as one of the factors that influence the political participation of Chinese Americans,this paper will expand the research perspective in this field,and make the research on the political participation of Chinese Americans more substantial and enriched.At the same time,taking religious belief as the breakthrough point conforms to the special background of the "religious country" in the United States,and is a theoretical response to the changes in the religious beliefs of Chinese Americans in the 21 st century and the political impacts they have produced.On the one hand,in the context of the special relationship between politics and religion in the United States,the rational use of the political function of religion will help Chinese Americans to build a new force of political participation based on beliefs,make up for the defects of Chinese Americans’ political participation and improve their discourse power in American political life.On the other hand,the intensification of differences between religious beliefs in recent years has indirectly led to the division of Chinese Americans’ political forces by influencing their political concepts and political behaviors.Due to the fundamental conflict between the absoluteness of religious morality and the compromise of democratic politics,the excessive involvement of religion in politics may cause the polarization of religious beliefs to aggravate the risk of political polarization,which should be vigilant by Chinese Americans. |
