This study aims to explore gender and familial relations in the power structure in Chinese Pentecostalism. Since its emergence in North America in the early twentieth century, Pentecostalism, a form of Christianity with a distinctive emphasis onSpirit-filled/empowered religious experiences, has rapidly grown in the Global South. What surprises scholars is the formation and development of the interdisciplinary study of Pentecostalism worldwide, which is now known as Pentecostal studies. In particular, gender has long been a debated theme in global Pentecostal scholarship.

One of the dominant discourses is Bernice Martin’s thesis of the Pentecostal gender paradox, which points out an ambiguity of gender’s role in shaping patriarchy, empowerment, and domestication in the Pentecostal ecclesiastical power relations, particularly evident in the Global South. However, the theoretical transferability of this thesis to the case of Chinese Pentecostalism remains doubtful. The question of how Chinese sociocultural contextuality shapes and reshapes gender and familial relations in Chinese Pentecostalism remains ambiguous and thus needs to be addressed.

This study adopts a five-year ethnography of Chinese Pentecostal churches in Hong Kong through participant observation, formal interviews, casual conversations, and the collection and analysis of literature. The study is grounded in the interpretative sociological framework of social Confucianism, informed by Ambrose Yeo-Chi King. The author argues that this sociocultural contextuality plays a critical role in shaping the power relations in Chinese Pentecostal churches. This study also challenges the inherent interpretation of the Pentecostal ecclesiastical power structure through the lens of gender and argues for a contextual interpretation of the Pentecostal ecclesiastical power relations that emphasizes symbolic paternalism through a symbolic familial lens. This study envisages contributing to the social scientific study of Pentecostalism by revisiting the existing Pentecostal theory and adopting the Chinese sociological theory that sheds light on the possibility of a new interpretation.