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Chapter
Tending the garden
DOI link for Tending the garden
Tending the garden book
Tending the garden
DOI link for Tending the garden
Tending the garden book
ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we analyse how Chinese evangelical Protestant employees view work and the workplace from a religious perspective, and how they seek to influence the broader society through the workplace. While existing China-focused studies have mainly examined the experience of the Christian business elite, in this chapter, we enquire into the experience of the employees. Working in predominantly non-Christian and secular workplaces, these employees discursively construct a distinction between their own Christian work ethos and that of their non-Christian colleagues. They regard the workplace as an arena where Christian evangelism, the perceived moral decline of contemporary society, and the supposed solution to the crisis are entangled. For these evangelical Protestant employees, the cultivation of personal piety and engagement in the subtle proselytisation in the workplace are not only a matter of saving souls but are also transforming the moral fabric of society.