Dachang Cong

While a student at the University of Pittsburgh, Dachang Cong
learned of the Amish. As a doctoral candidate in cultural anthro-
pology at Yale, he undertook fieldwork on the Amish in northern
Indiana, trying to observe and participate in their customs as much
as possible. He helped them with farm work and offered free taxi
service. Several Amish schools invited him to deliver lectures on
China. "It was a blessing to me that the Amish were just as curious
about me as I was about them, and this mutual curiosity helped
create an agreeable situation for field research." Dachang teaches at
the University of Texas, Dallas, and has written several articles on
the Chinese and Amish cultures.

The cultural and political climate of North America has encouraged the devel-
opment of a wide array of social and religious experiments ( Berry 1992). Many
of these, including the Oneida community and the Rajneeshees, have failed to
survive ( Carden 1969; FitzGerald 1986: 247-381). In contrast, the Amish are
characterized by social vitality, cultural resilience, and economic success ( Hostetler
1993; Kephart & Zellner 1994: 5-49; Kraybill 1989).

The Amish, a Christian group with origins in the Anabaptist movement of
sixteenth-century Europe, separated from the Swiss Mennonites in 1693 to es-
tablish a more conservative sect. In the early eighteenth century, the Amish
settled in eastern Pennsylvania. They have since thrived in both the United States
and Canada, and now number about 130,000. To the general public, they are
best known for wearing "old-fashioned" attire, speaking the Pennsylvania

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