During the Cold War, various political forces sought to shape the mindset of the Chinese diaspora. One understudied cultural influence that played an important role in reaching overseas Chinese was Chinese Christian literature. Focusing on Dengta (Lighthouse, 1956–1967), the first Chinese Christian magazine aimed at non-Christian communities in the diaspora, this study examines how the magazine developed an evangelical discourse that engaged with the cultural and spiritual identities of the Chinese diaspora amid political and ideological conflicts. Published in Hong Kong, which emerged as a hub for Chinese Christian literature in the post-war period, the magazine reflects a pivotal shift in Chinese Christian publishing: the start of a global movement aimed at evangelizing overseas Chinese. To appeal to the diaspora, Dengta adopted an ethnic and cultural rhetoric of Chineseness and presented Christian ideals in a context that resonated with the experiences of the Chinese diaspora. I argue that the Chineseness promoted by Dengta helped construct a transregional and transnational sense of belonging for overseas Chinese by framing a blend of traditional Chinese culture and modern knowledge within a Christian cosmic worldview. This study foregrounds the evangelical efforts of Christian literary workers to shape the diasporic experience amid the political tensions of the Cold War.

According to an influential narrative, the Cold War era Federal Bureau of Investigation led in the construction of a countersubversive machinery that was designed to punish progressive dissent and to uphold a conservative Christian capitalist public order. This narrative has been constructed with very little research done into the FBI’s actual views of and relations with the Cold War era political and religious Right, the ideology of which it was supposedly enforcing. Recent availability of FBI files makes such a study now possible – and yields results that destabilize the long-dominant narrative. These files show that the Bureau was in fact just as engaged in surveilling and repressing right-of-center organizations, and those of that era’s Christian Right in particular. Materials in the files suggests that far from being an empowering agent for the emerging Christian Right, the Cold War era FBI was in fact policing and enforcing a notably liberal containment consensus and that its views on “genuinely” American religiosity were very far from being far-right.