PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 6 –Grounding belonging in leisure spacepractices to show to the others their understanding of the language and their ability topractise certain manners and behaviours which are accepted in different gatherings.Although the Taiwanese-exclusive business associations or gatherings are oftenconsidered as very useful for my respondents in forging a feeling of being-in-place andbelonging, it seems that such an emotional process is more difficult to be fulfilled inreligious meetings and assemblies. For religious Taiwanese expatriates, a sense ofbelonging is often related to considerations as to whether certain religious practices orrituals can be fulfilled. As Joseph, a Muslim who lives in suburban Shanghai with hisfamily, specified:For Muslims, the mosque is a very important place for us. I feel my life is not completewithout going to a mosque to attend service. That‘s why I was so happy when I foundone nearby. For me, the mosque has become my second home in China and every time Iattend meeting, I feel very happy and content.Similarly, Harrison, a Christian living in Wujiang with his family, linked his feeling ofbeing at home to his participation in Christian meetings, which he describes as ―a bigfamily in which you have so many brothers and sisters around who not only accompanyyou, but also are good helpers.‖ Although places, such as mosques and churches, whichallow my religious respondents to continue their religious practices, are important intheir expatriate lives, they frequently consider them as meaningful spaces of belongingwhen they meet their expectations of a religious place. This is evaluated according towhether their feeling of being in what Harrison called the ‗family of God‘ can befulfilled, which depends on the (religious) activities taken place there. For example,nearly all of my Christian respondents told me that rather than going to local churches233