Fellow Focus: Sam Chao

In this conversation with Pathways Fellow Brooke Luokkala, 2025-26 Undergraduate Humanities Honors Fellow Sam Chao discusses his thesis project about the conflicting identities of Chinese Americans during the Chinese Exclusion Era and its compatibility with the Fox Center's 2025-26 research theme "Life/Story".

BROOKE LUOKKALA: Thanks for joining me, Sam. Can you tell me about your project?

SAMUEL CHAO: My project is tentatively titled "Chinese American Christians in the Chinese Exclusion Era." It's dated 1874 to 1920. It's about the life of four individual Chinese American religious figures. Three of them are Christians, one of them is not, but he's a very interesting character and has very interesting ideas of what it means to do religion at this time. 

The project is centered around the idea of the heathen, which I argue is a religio-racial stereotype that was imposed upon Chinese immigrants during this time. Chinese American Christians existing in America at that time were definitely caught between being Christian and also being Chinese American. One is a racial-ethnic minority one is religious majority in America, and so this project is really interested in the ways that these figures negotiated their unique positionality. How did they talk about the heathen? How did they affirm certain parts of it but also trying to deconstruct it? 

From my research so far, I've found that these figures are really trying to reimagine the heathen. One of the figures even reclaims this term and calls himself a heathen. They all have really interesting religious innovations that I'm arguing reflects a distinct Chinese American way of doing religion. So, moving beyond white, Western binary ways of thinking about the category of religion, I am trying to find some middle space for being both Chinese American and Christian.

BL: Great. So, how does the project fit the 2025/26 Fellowship theme "Life/Story", and what does "Life/Story" mean to you?

SC: Hmm, I'm going to start with the second part of that question. I think Life/Story to me is an examination of someone's personal story. It's looking into a life and treating the person as an individual. In doing so, it enables me to take a deeper look into their personal relationships, influential experiences, and worldviews instead of getting lost in the data of many people. Within that, because I'm using only four figures, I can gain a better understanding of who they are and how they thought by delving into primary sources. 

And so, to move into the first part of that question: I've collected sermons, newspaper articles or journal articles, and personal writings to put myself in each individual’s shoes. I'm trying to see what it was like to live as a Chinese immigrant, and as a Christian, during the late 19th and early 20th century. What were their daily lives like? How did they think about their immigration journeys? How did they interact with White Christians? How did they interact with their co-ethnics? In doing so, I think I'm able to get to know the figures. I'm aiming to remain faithful to their actual mindset, while also writing about or thinking critically about the ways that they were doing their faith.

BL: Finally, what is your favorite part about being a Fox Fellow so far? Or, since we have just started the fellowship year, what are you most looking forward to?  

SC: I've just really been struck by the support of being at the Fox Center. I think especially being an undergrad at Emory, the two main pathways that people typically take are business or pre-health, neither of which are very humanity centered and are very career driven. And so, as a humanities major, it's easy to feel unsupported and to sort of feel invisible in a lot of ways. I think one of the biggest [benefits] of even just getting the fellowship was having someone recognize that my work is important and valuable and that they understood it.  
 
There is a lot of solidarity in being in this space with other people interested in the humanities. There's a lot of joy in seeing the work that other people are doing and feeling bonded through our shared interests. So that sort of gets to what I am looking forward to, which is spending the year with my fellow undergraduate fellows but also getting to engage with the faculty fellows, the grad students, and even the staff at the Fox Center. I think there's a lot to learn.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.