Food Culture, Religious Belief and Community Relations: An Ethnographic Study of the Overseas Chinese Catholic

Abstract

Religion and food culture are two closely related topics in the Christian discourse and have been the subject of extensive anthropological research. This paper takes the Boston Chinese Catholics as a case study, and it adopts an ethnographic research methodology to explore the ways in which the sense of belonging develops in the Church community, based on the analysis of food culture in this context. Chinese Catholics in Boston are mainly Fujian and Hong Kong immigrants, and the class, status, and economic differences between these two communities are well apparent. The Boston Chinese Catholic Church divides food into sacred and secular. During religious rituals, all Catholics share the sacred food, the Holy Body and the Holy Blood, which symbolize the unity of the Catholic Church. In everyday life, Fujian Catholic and Hong Kong Catholic community members follow the dietary habits of their community to maintain a division between each community’s traditions. Over the years, the Boston Chinese Catholic Church has developed a flexible strategy—externally consistent and internally differentiated—to maintain the unity of the Church while embracing the cultural differences of its members. This flexible strategy has also influenced the way in which the Boston Chinese Catholic Church operates. This study indicates that we need to place more emphasis on the diversity and complexity of the members of the overseas Chinese Catholic Church and the specificities of the Catholic religion’s discourse so that we can better understand the overall practices and methods of overseas Chinese Catholicism. This study is a catalyst for the study of overseas Chinese Catholicism, as well as the study of food culture, religion, community, and identity in that context.

1. Background

According to the Catholic tradition, the laity are not supposed to eat breakfast before attending Mass to ensure that they participate in religious rituals in the most devout state. Therefore, the Boston Chinese Catholic Church will prepare food in advance for the members to enjoy after the religious service. On Sundays, this has become a regular activity of the Boston Chinese Catholic Church members. As an anthropologist, I naturally followed the laity to the church basement, hoping to establish good communication with the overseas Chinese Catholics in Boston. However, my principal correspondent, Sister Wong, advised me to follow her to the Pastoral Center instead, which is a block away from the Church. Sister Wong advised that the basement of the church is a place for Hong Kong Catholics, while the pastoral center is one for Fujian Catholics. Why do the two communities attend religious rituals altogether but eat breakfast separately, in two different places? This is the question that I became attracted to the most.

Religion and food culture are two closely related topics of discussion in the Christian discourse and have been the subject of extensive anthropological research (Mintz and Du Bois 2002) through the years. Food consumption does not only aim to satisfy our nutritional needs, but it also constitutes a way for us to express our religious beliefs (Feeley-Harnik 1995). Notwithstanding the fact that different religious beliefs have shaped different food cultures (Norman 2012). Many scholars are focusing on the symbol of food as it appears in the Bible, while more emphasis is placed on meat that comes from pigs in this context (McDonald 2008, pp. 1–17). These discussions derive from Smith’s approach to biblical food (Smith 1995). Different approaches to biblical food can strongly reinforce the religious and ethnic boundaries of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (Fabre-Vassas 1997; Douglas 1984; Harris 1998; Freidenreich 2011). In conclusion, what becomes well apparent, is that religious beliefs have influenced dietary habits to a great extent.

Food culture serves as a special indicator not only among different religions but also within the traditions of each religion. For example, both Seventh-day Adventists and the Unity School of Christianity promote vegetarianism, but they have a different understanding of vegetarianism based on different approaches. They also form certain divisions around different approaches to vegetarianism (Rapport 2014). In the context of emerging globalization, Halal products and services are expanding, but they are also facing several political, social, and economic difficulties (Bergeaud-Blackler et al. 2015). In the 21st century, the relationship between religion and food culture has become diverse and complex due to the involvement of mobility, class, gender, and power in the public discourse. Some scholars have even suggested ‘eating religiously’ could become a new field of study (Markowitz and Avieli 2022).

Food culture plays an important role in overseas Chinese studies. Many scholars focus on the ‘History of Chinese food overseas’ (Roberts 2004; Chen 2014; Liu 2015), ‘Chinese food and cultural identity’ (Lu and Fine 1995), ‘Chinese food and cultural integration’ (Goody 1998, pp. 161–71), and ‘Chinese food and globalization’ (Lee 2008; Cheung and Wu 2014). However, few scholars have examined the subject of overseas Chinese food culture from a religious perspective. Therefore, the area of religious beliefs and food culture of the overseas Chinese population is a topic worth expanding on.

This study adopts the perspective of lived religion (e.g., Ammerman 2006, 2020), and explores the varied characteristics of the communities that are part of the Boston Chinese Catholic Church based on the relationship between religion and food culture. More specifically, this research explores the cultural symbolism of food culture in the overseas Chinese Catholic Church and analyzes the relation of food preferences to different identities and the methods adopted by the Boston Chinese Catholic Church towards maintaining a balance between religion and food culture in the community.

2. Methods and Context

My findings are based on an ethnographic study of the Chinese Catholics in Boston. The primary materials come from six months of fieldwork at the Boston Chinese Catholic. At the church, I was given a chance to participate in Mass liturgies, Sunday school activities, children’s Bible study school, festival parades, church visits, church services, and youth group activities. Even though my focus was based on the Boston Chinese Catholic Church, I also visited Chinese Christian churches, Chinese Buddhist organizations, and other religious institutions in the Boston area. Through observation, we can discover the diversity of Chinese religious beliefs in Boston, and through comparison, we can get a better understanding of the distinctive characteristics of Chinese Catholics in Boston.

In addition to the observational part of the research, I conducted 32 in-depth interviews. The interviewees that were recruited can be divided into three categories. The first category is the clergy. I interviewed Father Shen, who was the parish priest of the Boston Chinese Catholic Church at the time of my visit. He was from Anyang, China, received his theological training in the United States, and served in the Boston Catholic Church. The second category included Catholics from Fujian, with a total of 20 interviewees. Out of 20 interviewees, 13 were women, 7 were men, 15 had been granted permanent residency, and 5 were still illegal immigrants. The third category included Catholics from Hong Kong. Of those 11 respondents, 8 were female and 3 were male, all of whom were already American citizens or permanent residency holders. The interviews were conducted primarily in Mandarin, and a few in English and Cantonese.

The official name of the Boston Chinese Catholic Church is St. James Church, and it is located in the heart of Boston’s Chinatown, adjacent to Tufts University School of Medicine on three sides except for the main street on the left. In the past, this church was mainly used by the medical school and its patients. Over the years, and as more and more people from China gathered in Chinatown, the Catholics among them looked for a place for their religious activities. In 1967, Richard Cardinal Cushing, which is the Bishop of the Diocese of Boston, invited Rev. Francis Li from Hong Kong to be the assistant priest of St. James Church, who was responsible for the religious activities of the Chinese Catholics. However, St. James Church was not exclusively for Chinese Catholics at that time. Its primary function was to serve the medical school of which Chinese religious activities accounted for only a small part. After 1970, five more priests served Chinese Catholics in succession. From 1992 to 2002, Father Denis Como was the Parish Priest of St. James Church. During this period, as the number of Chinese Catholics gradually increased, they asked for an activity center. For that purpose, Father Denis Como presided over the purchase of another property about 100 meters away from the church to be used as a Chinese Catholic Pastoral Centre. It was not until 2010, when Father Shen came to St. James as an auxiliary priest and head of Chinese Catholic pastoral Central, that the St. James church became a Chinese Catholic church, with a Chinese Catholic Church sign publicly displayed and Chinese elements placed inside and out of the church. For example, the Chinese banner inside the church reads ‘Faith,’ ‘Hope,’ and ‘Love.’ The church’s annex is decorated in Chinese style. The assignment of St. James Church to the Chinese Catholic Church for independent use by the Diocese of Boston was related to the growing number of Chinese residents in Boston. Of course, this also facilitated a better mission for the overseas Chinese population.

Currently, the Boston Chinese Catholic Church invites a priest to be in charge of the Church’s operation. The parish council oversees the church, specifically divided into different functional departments such as liturgy, finance, evangelization, and spirituality. According to the priest, of over 1000 registered Chinese Catholics, about 500–600 attend religious activities regularly. During the time I spent on fieldwork, I found that the Chinese Catholics in Boston are divided into two main communities: one is the Hong Kong immigrants, who are legal immigrants. Starting from the 1960s, many people from Hong Kong migrated to the United States. Hong Kong immigrants have good economic and social status, as well as cultural capital and can integrate well into American society. The other category is Fujian immigrants, who entered America after the 1990s through the illegal immigration route. With the help of their relatives and friends, who succeeded in getting them into the country, they could survive in America and live in Chinatown. Since they did not have a broad skill set, they mostly worked in Chinese restaurants in Chinatown.

3. Food in the Overseas Chinese Catholic Church

3.1. Sacred Food and Secular Food

At the Boston Chinese Catholic Church, food is divided into sacred and secular according to its relevance to religious rituals. Sacred food mainly refers to the Holy Body and Holy Blood in the Mass, which Catholics usually call spiritual food (in Mandarin: 精神食粮). Through the religious rituals, bread and wine are offered by the priest as Holy Body and Holy Blood, symbolizing Jesus’ devotion to the sins of humankind, having sacred religious connotation. Through receiving the Holy Body and the Holy Blood, laity establishes a spiritual connection with God. Secular food refers to food consumption outside the Mass, which includes breakfast after Sunday Mass, church meals, and the daily meals the priests and the church staff have. These foods, even in the Church, are not related to religious rituals and do not have a symbolic religious connotation.

These two types of food traditions are not completely distinguished from each other; on the contrary, they are closely related. Bread and wine are not only consumed during religious rituals but are also integral parts of the secular diet. It is only after the ritual of sanctification that bread and wine are transformed from secular to sacred food (Eliade 1959). Father Shen has a very graphic analogy to share, according to which “if a piece of bread, passing through my hands, is offered on the altar, all overseas Chinese Catholics will appreciate and accept it because it represents the blessing of God. However, if this piece of bread is placed in the church, the situation will be different. Hong Kong Catholics would eat it as bread that is part of the daily diet. Fujian Catholics would not eat it as they prefer Chinese food. Even if some Fujian Catholics have the habit of eating bread, they will not eat it together with Hong Kong Catholics. The Hong Kong Catholics also have the same attitude toward it. There is a distinction between these two communities, which also affects their food choices and eating habits.”

Thus, food habits play a role in religious distinctions but also in social distinctions. At the Boston Chinese Catholic Church, different communities gather and form different eating habits, ways of interaction, and social relationships.

3.2. Commensality: The Holy Body and the Holy Blood

Commensality is not only a way of eating but also a window into society and culture (Tan 2015, pp. 13–30). In religion, the meaning of commensality goes beyond the organizational form of food; it is about the expression of religious beliefs and the practice of them. In the study of Semitic religion, Robertson Smith argues that communal eating is a particular religious practice that establishes a kinship bond between humans and gods through sacrificial rituals and uses communal eating as a metaphor for the relationship between humans and gods. In addition, the formation of ‘communal partners’ in religious communions strengthens internal relationships and distinguishes the members from other non-religious believers (Smith 1995). Following Smith’s work, Émile Durkheim argues that communal eating can create ‘artificial’ kinship bonds between attendees. Therefore, food is always the substance that continues to recreate the social organism (Durkheim 1995, pp. 330–54). Thus, for individuals, religious commensality can establish a way of communication between man and God and is an important part of the expression and practice of the religious faith. For groups, religious communion can strengthen relationships among the members of the group, maintain the stability of the group order, and ensure the unity of the group. Commensality with religion is very common in Chinese. In Hong Kong, there is a local ‘basin meal’ according to which the locals cook various meals separately, and then they get gathered, with the separate meals being just one meal that is shared alike by everyone. That serves as a symbolic representation of the people who gather to eat. This is a form of an act that can break the boundaries of class and status so that everyone in the shrine is equal while they share food and sit at the same table (Watson and Watson 2004, pp. 105–24).

It has been noted that during the development of early Christianity, religious worship was practiced during mealtime, thus creating a Christian identity shared alike by everyone eating at the same table at the same time (Taussig 2009, pp. 19–20). It was not until after the third century that the ritual Eucharist and secular food were gradually divided into different categories. Therefore, commensality in the Christian religion is not only a religious ritual that leads Christians to feel the sanctity of God, but also a manifestation of religious identity that supports the unity of the members of the Christian community (Flanagan 1991).

The Catholic religion requires Catholics to attend Mass every weekday and on special days as a religious obligation. The Mass is the Catholic religious ritual that commemorates the sacrifice of Jesus, the great Catholic sacrifice to God, and the center of the entire Catholic liturgical life. During the ritual of the Mass, bread and wine offered by the priest, become the Holy Body and Holy Blood, which symbolize the formation of Jesus for the salvation of humanity. As Mary Douglas puts it, “the observance of the dietary rules would thus have been a meaningful part of the great liturgical act of recognition and worship which culminated in the sacrifice in the Temple (Douglas 1984, p. 58).” This liturgical communion, with its deep theological meaning, is a necessity for the communion of the Chinese Catholics (Cruz 2016). Catholics attend Mass and consume spiritual food that has a strong religious meaning, establishing their connection to God on a spiritual level.

During the liturgy of the Mass, only Catholics can receive the Holy Body and the ‘Holy Blood.’ On one occasion, a Fujian Catholic brought a friend to Mass to convert him to the Catholic faith. At the Holy Communion, the non-Catholic followed his friend, and they received the Holy Body and the Holy Blood together. This incident caused havoc among the people in the Church, and the members of the management committee of the Boston Chinese Catholic Church, which included both Hong Kong and Fujian Catholics, immediately organized a meeting and unanimously decided to ask the priest to teach the non-Catholic the mystery of the Eucharist, hoping that they would receive it in a holy spirit, even though they had received it by mistake. As we can see, the Holy Body and Holy Blood, as sacred food for Catholics, draw a clear line between Catholics and non-Catholics. At the same time, they also strengthen the religious identity of Catholics.

Both Hong Kong Catholics and Fujian Catholics share the same Catholic identity, which is what enables them to share a commonality. Auntie Liu is a Hong Kong Catholic but serves mainly Fujian Catholics within the Church. Auntie Liu’s husband is a senior engineer and they have two daughters; the older daughter has graduated from college and works for a human resources firm in Boston, and the younger daughter has just started junior high school. Auntie Liu is a full-time wife, and her main job is to take care of her youngest daughter. Auntie Liu is very devoted to her faith and has a lot of free time, so she puts a lot of her time into church work. According to the church’s organizational division of labor, Auntie Liu’s job is mainly to assist the parishioners of the Fujian Community in their religious activities, which mainly includes faith training, daily counseling, and planning as well as arranging activities for the Fujian Community. The first and the third week of each month are called Mandarin Masses and they are mainly attended by the parishioners of the Fujian Community. Auntie Liu brings her young daughter to every Mass to offer to the Fujian community. Each Mass requires a cantor and an organist so Auntie Liu takes the cantor and leaves her young daughter to play the organ. Generally, the Mandarin Mass for the Fujian community ends at 10 am, while the Cantonese Mass for the Hong Kong community begins at 10 am. Parishioners are only required to attend one Mass per day, so after the Mass at the Fujian Community, Auntie Liu and her youngest daughter would do some cleaning at the church, wait for her husband to finish the Cantonese Mass, and then walk home together. Auntie Liu and her daughter are open to attending Masses in the Fujianese community; she said, “the Mass is universal, only the language in each community is different. Hong Kong people and Fujian people attend different Masses because we are used to different things. We all receive the Holy Body and Holy Blood of Jesus Christ in the Mass, and we are all God’s children.” In Auntie Liu’s view, the linguistic differences between the two communities are cultural differences and have nothing to do with the nature of religious faith, saying “whether it’s a Mandarin Mass, a Cantonese Mass, or an English Mass, it is all the same; it is all about our faith in God. We are sharing the body and the blood of Christ, and that is the fundamental essence of faith.” Therefore, Auntie Liu has been consistently attending the Mandarin Mass for Fujian Catholics. The commensality of the rituals within the Church connects the Hong Kong Catholics and the Fujian Catholics.

In short, when we examine food culture in the context of the religious ritual field, the differences between Hong Kong Catholic and Fujian Catholic communities begin to fade, and everyone is allowed to receive the Holy Body and the Holy Blood together. By getting gathered all together and by receiving the Holy Body and the Holy Blood, a religious community becomes more established, and that leads to the formation of a communion in the Church.

3.3. Separate Meals: Chinese Food and Western Food in Everyday Life

Jack Goody points out that food can vary among social classes (Goody 1982). K.C. Chang indicates that, in each segment of Chinese food culture, food expresses social differences in social interactions in different ways (Chang 1977, p. 16). Due to social class, the distinction between Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics is very clear (Bourdieu 1996). In the eyes of Hong Kong Catholics, Fujian Catholics are illegal immigrants with a low level of education. And in the eyes of Fujian Catholics, Hong Kong Catholics always assume that they belong to a superior place within society and always look down on their fellow countrymen. Therefore, the difference between the two communities can be apparent, and there is little interaction between them in everyday life. This distinction has a direct impact on the ways food is symbolically approached in the church.

During the first and third weeks of each month, when the Mandarin Mass ends around 10:00 a.m., the Fujian Catholics go to the Pastoral Center for breakfast. Breakfast, in this case, is thin rice and twisted cruller; in other words, typical traditional Chinese food. Most of the Fujian Catholics entered America after the reform in 1978 through the illegal immigration route. Except for a few Fujian Catholics who opened their small restaurants, most of them work in Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. The Fujian Catholics congregate in Chinatown, Quincy, and Malden, where there are many Chinese and international students. The Fujian Catholics have retained their food culture habits, and many have difficulties integrating fully into the American food culture; they are more accustomed to the Chinese food culture. Uncle Zhang has been living in America for over twenty years and he is still used to Chinese food culture. After more than ten years of hard work, Uncle Zhang opened a Chinese restaurant in Morton, a suburb of Boston, where the frequent customers are Chinese students who rent rooms there. Once, Uncle Zhang took his grandson, who was holding a burger in his hand, to church. Uncle Zhang said, “children like to eat these things that Americans eat; we are older and still like to eat Chinese food. After all, we are Chinese.” In Uncle Zhang’s heart, Chinese food is not only a dietary preference but also an expression of Chinese identity. Whenever it was time for the Fujian community to gather for a meal, he would prepare thin rice and doughnuts at home and trust Catholics who lived in Morton to drive them over to the church.

In addition to what they eat, the Fujian Catholics retain traditional Chinese eating habits. When it comes to breakfast, the Fujian community has a strong preference for traditional Chinese food. Whenever rice and twisted crullers are brought out, they first share them with the elderly and children. What is more, everyone likes to help each other, and the atmosphere at the Pastoral Center Breakfast is particularly positive, making it very popular among the Fujian Catholics.

The Fujian community’s presence in the pastoral center is also an important social activity with the following main characteristics: information exchange, and practical and emotional support. The Fujian Catholics would exchange information about their recent lives, including what they had seen and heard when they returned to Fujian to visit their relatives, details about the lives of their relatives and friends in America, as well as about recent events in the Fujian immigrant community. Through this exchange of information, Fujian Catholics receive support about how to better organize their lives. Furthermore, they help each other. Fujian Catholics are working in Chinese restaurant, and they often share business information such as information on restaurant recruitment, details about restaurant owners’ attitudes towards employees, and other information. This provides essential help to Fujian Catholics who are looking for new job opportunities. At the same time, Fujian Catholics also exchange market information, such as supermarket discount sales, which can help them save on living expenses. Most importantly, Fujian Catholics often provide channels to hire lawyers or seek legal assistance to help them cope with illegal immigration investigations. Finally, due to their lower education level and social class level, Fujian Catholics find it difficult to integrate into American society. Living in a foreign country for a long time, in combination with high levels of pressure at work and low income, they generally feel that life is difficult and inevitably feel lonely and isolated. The regular gathering activities of the Fujianese community provide an opportunity for the Fujian Catholics to communicate and feel safe.

Therefore, during breakfast meetings, the Fujian community maintains the stability of religious faith and creates a space for Fujian Catholics to interact with each other. Thus, it gradually becomes a more united community.

Unlike the Fujian Catholics, the food culture of Hong Kong Catholics is more Western-oriented. Most Hong Kong Catholics who migrated to America were educated in America, later stayed in America to work, and became American citizens. Hong Kong Catholics work mainly as doctors, engineers, and teachers, and have a high income. In addition, the social status of Hong Kong Catholics gives them more opportunities to socialize, which enables them to integrate better into American society. In their everyday life, Hong Kong Catholics maintain an American way of life, with three meals a day based on Western-style dining. Therefore, before Sunday Mass, the long table in the church basement is set up in advance with bread, milk, coffee, and Western-style tea. Due to its special geographical location and history, Hong Kong is in the contact zone between Chinese and Western cultures and was exposed to Western society and Western civilization at an early stage. In addition, due to their familiarity with British culture, their food culture has many elements that come from Western-style dining. Most importantly, Western-style dining is not only a matter of dietary preference but also an expression of identity. After I became familiar with the Chinese Catholics in Boston, many Hong Kong Catholics also got to know me. There were several times when I was going to follow the Fujian Catholics to the Pastoral Center for breakfast. Jacob, a Hong Kong Catholic, stopped me and said, “you shouldn’t eat with those Fujianese. They like to eat Chinese food, which is different from American food. Besides, they are illegal immigrants and can’t integrate into American society. You should dine with us instead.” Apparently, in the eyes of Hong Kong Catholics, Western food culture is the American way of eating and has a cultural advantage over Chinese food. By following Western food habits, Hong Kong Catholics can be distinguished from Fujian Catholics.

Breakfast in the church basement follows the dietary norms of the West. While food is placed on a long table, the table is organized as a buffet where one would need to serve themselves. It would be considered rude to serve food to someone else. After breakfast, everyone must place their cutlery and leftovers separately, according to each disposal category. At the breakfast site, Hong Kong Catholics use their English names instead of their Chinese names, as Fujian Catholics do. In addition, Hong Kong Catholics are very concerned about personal privacy and do not easily reveal details about themselves and their families to others. Except for very close friends, their interactions are more on the level of pleasantries. For example, they often start with “Are you busy at work?” and “How are you?” to greet each other. The church basement breakfast, which is predominately attended by Hong Kong Catholics, is typical of the American lifestyle.

Hong Kong Catholics go to the church basement for breakfast every Sunday. Fujian Catholics go to the pastoral center for Chinese breakfast on the first and the third Sunday of each month, and on the second and fourth Sunday of the month, they also go to the church basement for Western breakfast. There are two main reasons for the Boston Chinese Catholic Church arranging it this way: one of them is to accommodate the Mass schedule. The Boston Chinese Catholic Church has a Cantonese Mass every Sunday, and on the Sunday of the first and the third week of the month, the church celebrates a separate Mandarin Mass for the Fujian Catholics an hour earlier. Thus, by the second and the fourth Sunday of the month, the Fujian Catholics could only attend the Cantonese Mass with the Hong Kong Catholics. Moreover, the Church wanted to increase the opportunity for communication between the Hong Kong community and the Fujian community by inviting them to have breakfast together. However, according to my observation, this initiative did not have the desired effect. The two communities are working separately, and cross-community exchanges are rare. Hong Kong Catholics communicate with Hong Kong Catholics, while Fujian Catholics bring their habits to the basement breakfast where they still exchange information and help each other serve the food. It can be observed that a deep-rooted barrier has been formed between Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics around food culture and food liturgy, and it is difficult to form an effective communication channel between them. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, discrimination among Overseas Chinese Catholics became more obvious. Hong Kong Catholics deliberately reduced their visits to having breakfast together with Fujian Catholics because they believed that their diet would create aggregation and increase the risk of virus transmission.

4. Discussion: Food, Catholicism, and Community

Food can represent a symbol of cultural identity (Fischler 1988; Lupton 1996, pp. 1–5). For immigrants, food habit is a tool to reinforce community solidarity and a distinctive characteristic of each community. In other words, food culture has a dual function of integration and differentiation (Mintz and Du Bois 2002; Feeley-Harnik 1995). In that regard, food culture has a dual function of integration and distinction in the context that it is generally believed that the integrational function of food is taking place inside the religious community and the distinctive function takes place outside the religious community. However, food culture’s integration and distinction functions may also be clustered within a religious community. The Boston Chinese Catholic Church is an example of when this happens.

In the context of religion, food is divided into sacred and secular. Bread and wine are part of secular food in everyday life, but after the priest’s consecration, they become ‘sacred food.’ Through the commensality, Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics are united. However, when pieces of bread and spoonfuls of wine are consumed out of religious rituals, they become what divides Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics. The Fujian Catholics like Chinese food, and they consider bread and wine to be the food of the Hong Kong Catholics. In this way, the Boston Chinese Catholic Church maintains the unity of the Church while meeting the needs of different communities of the Church.

The strategy that is adopted by the Boston Chinese Catholic Church can be described as flexible since it is externally consistent and internally adaptable. This can effectively balance the community’s varied needs while ensuring the smooth functioning of the Church as it accommodates the cultural traditions of different communities in order to maintain the unity of the Church. According to the principles of the Catholic Church, all Catholics are brothers and sisters at a spiritual level, and all should maintain an attitude of unity and move away from what keeps them separated. However, the cultural differences between Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics should be respected.

This flexible strategy not only affected the social relations within the Boston Chinese Catholic Church but also influenced the functionality of the church, including the arrangement of the daily happenings of the church, as well as the liturgical system. In addition to the arrangement of breakfast after Mass, the language of the religious liturgy is similarly situated. On top of the established English and Cantonese Masses in the first and third weeks of each month, an additional Mass in Mandarin is required, specifically addressing Fujian Catholics. As for the second and fourth weeks, Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics attend the Cantonese Mass together. During an interview, the former priest-in-charge of the Boston Chinese Catholic Church described the original intent of this flexible set of strategies in this way: “We are Hong Kong Catholics or Fujian Catholics, but in the eyes of the Americans, we are all Chinese Catholics, and the Americans do not make such careful distinctions. As a parish, we have to consider the interests of both groups in everything we do and we cannot favor one over the other. For example, in our Mass schedule, we have Cantonese Masses, Mandarin Masses, and English Masses to meet the needs of different people. However, we do not deny that there are differences between the two communities. Furthermore, we want to remain united, at least on the level of faith. We believe in one God. In the presence of God, we are all his children. I have repeatedly emphasized this point in the overseas Chinese Church, supporting that the two communities are equal on a spiritual level. And we must remember God’s teaching to love one another and not discriminate against one another.” From Father Sheng’s words, we can see that such a flexible set of strategies has become the social mechanism that sustains the functioning of the Boston Chinese Catholic Church.

There is more research on overseas Chinese Christianity, but few scholars have focused on overseas Chinese Catholicism. This study reminds us that overseas Chinese Catholicism is different from Chinese Catholicism, and thus, we cannot simply compare the two. A culture clash in the overseas Chinese Christian Church will lead to a split of the Church, with a few members of the Church taking their distance and eventually starting a new Church (Guest 2003; Yang 2021). However, Catholicism is different. The Catholic Church has a strict system of canonization, and church schism is not a possible option (Meyer 2017). Therefore, based on observing the principles of faith, the Church adopts a flexible strategy within the Church, taking into full consideration the interests of all the members of the Catholic community, and coordinates a set of solutions acceptable to all Catholics. This is the traditional practice of the Catholic Church to solve the internal cultural diversity, and it is an important reason for the ‘complexio oppositorum’ character of the Catholic Church, as emphasized by Carl Schmitt (Schmitt 1996, p. 7).

This study explores how food culture and food habits are associated with the interpersonal relationships that are developed among the community members that belong to the Boston Chinese Catholic Church. Few studies have focused on the relationship between the overseas Chinese food culture and religion. Chinese food culture and religion are closely related (Anderson 1988, pp. 199–204). Food culture in early China was closely associated with rituals and has metaphorically appeared in the Chinese concept of the universe and cultural imagination (Sterckx 2011). There is a concept around medicinal food in Chinese medicine, according to how food and the body correspond, which involves the practice of Chinese religious beliefs (Farquhar 2002, pp. 47–77). The popular Chinese concept of nurturing life is filled with a lot of narratives and stories of imagination between dietary habits and religion (Farquhar and Zhang 2012). Religion has an important impact on the choice of ingredients, dietary practices, and food restrictions, and overseas Chinese religious believers are no exception to that. This study introduces a religious perspective on the overseas Chinese food culture and expands the field of research on this subject. It also constitutes a good source of information toward studying the relationship between overseas Chinese food culture traditions with religion.

5. Conclusions

The Boston Chinese Catholic Church includes two communities: Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics. Due to differences in origin, economic and social status, and education level, a clear division has formed between the two communities. However, the mutual identity they share as Catholics keeps them together. This complex relationship is also projected onto their food culture.

In the Boston Chinese Catholic Church, food is divided into sacred food and secular food. The sacred diet is associated with religious rituals, primarily the Holy Body and the Holy Blood in the Mass. As a medium for Catholics to communicate with God, the Holy Body and the Holy Blood become spiritual food for overseas Chinese Catholics, which is the most important reward for them and the reason they visit the church every week to attend Mass. In the eyes of Catholics, the Holy Body and the Holy Blood offered by the priest are universal and consistent, applicable to all Catholics. Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics abandon the boundaries of the secular dimension, share a common Catholic identity, and participate in communion. This attitude toward the Eucharist strengthened the unity within the Boston Chinese Catholic Church. Secular food mainly refers to the breakfast after Sunday Mass. Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics have major differences due to their different dietary habits and the degree of integration into American society. Fujian Catholics prefer Chinese food, while Hong Kong Catholics prefer Western food. Both communities maintain their individual dietary preferences when in the church, which led to dietary adaptations in the liturgy and even created different communities in the Church. Fujian Catholics and Hong Kong Catholics form a relationship that is both closely linked and separated from each other based on their dietary habits.

This flexible strategy of externally consistent and internally varied elements is the result of long-term interaction and communication among Boston Chinese Catholics, which ensures the unity of the religious community and enables the Boston Chinese Catholic Church to present itself to society. It also shows that the Church embraces different types of Catholics but also respects the cultural traditions and social habits of different Catholics, enabling them to live together in harmony.

This case also reminds us that the overseas Chinese Catholic Church is not homogeneous, but full of heterogeneity. Different Catholics bring different cultures to the Church community. When these different views, ideas, and actions intertwine in the overseas Chinese Catholic Church, they affect how it operates. In addition, from the perspective of food culture, this research deepens the understanding of the relationship between overseas Chinese food culture and religious belief but also supports the expansion of the study of the relationship between religion, food culture, community, and identity.