China had one of the richest and most diverse religious cultures in the world before the modernist transformations brought about by the Republican and Communist regimes, both of which had radical anti-traditionalist polices. The recent economic reforms and concurrent relaxation of religious polices have provided fertile ground for the revitalization of a wide range of religious practices including divination, ancestor worship, temple festivals, spirit mediumism, funeral rites, exorcism, pilgrimages and more. At the same time apparently new forms of religious practices have emerged, including lay Buddhist preachers, Maoist shamans, and a bewildering number of new sects and schools. This book provides a wide-ranging and in-depth survey of contemporary religious practices in China. It examines the nature of contemporary practices, including formal and informal practices, mainstream religions such as Buddhism and Daoism, minority religions such as Roman Catholicism and new religions. It explores how this remarkable religious effervescence has come about, discusses which practices are revivals of older practices, which are new ones and which older practices have not been revived, and relates religious revitalization and innovation to larger issues of social and cultural continuity and change.

This book provides a wide-ranging and in-depth survey of contemporary religious practices in China, explaining how the recent economic reforms and concurrent relaxation of religious polices have provided fertile ground for the revitalization of a wide range of religious practices.