Religion in the Peoples’ Republic of China: An Overview

Abstract

In the three decades since the end of the Maoist era, all forms of religion in China have been undergoing restoration, innovation and expansion. Belying Marxist and secularist predictions of religion’s inevitable demise, most forms of religion, whether new or traditional, indigenous or foreign, official or illegal, ethnic or universal, communal or individual, and all combinations thereof, have enjoyed increasing popularity. This chapter begins with a discussion of what counts as “religion” in the Chinese context and how it can be measured, and presents a brief outline of the historical factors underlying the current situation. It then provides an overview of the PRC’s policy toward religion, which constitutes the framework within which (or, more often, outside of which) Chinese religious life is organized. It finally presents the basic evolution since 1979 of Chinese communal religion, the qigong movement, the Confucian revival, Buddhism and Daoism, Islam, and Christianity.