Interesting New York Times article about the revival of religion in China — written by Ian Johnson, who is also the author of Wild Grass, a very good book on grassroots political activism in China. I’ve never thought of China as a very religious place — which for me is one of the aspects of Chinese society that makes it so easy to relate to. There are lots of beautiful mountainside temples, but in everyday life, religion never seemed to play a major role. And when religion did come up in conversation, it was often negative. Friends in Wuhan told me about monks who followed dietary rules and wore robes during the day, only to get into their BMWs and drive off to meat-filled banquets once the clock struck 5. And visiting a beautiful temple isn’t quite the same when you realize that the only part of the ancient mountainside temple that’s actually old is the location — everything else was destroyed in the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt ten years ago, when the local government realized that there was tourist money to be earned.
The article, however, talks about a revival of religious practice in China. It cites a survey that estimates that 300 million people in China “claim a faith”. This number is probably based on a fairly loose definition of claiming a faith — Chinese traditional religions tend to be a mixture of religious doctrine, philosophy and superstition, and a person can easily believe in aspects of Taoism while also believing in aspects of Buddhism and without necessarily visiting a temple, going through any kinds of rites or ceremonies, and without really belonging to a religious community, in the way that is more common for firm believers of the other major world religions. Still, 300 million is a huge number, and says something about the perseverence of traditional culture during the decades of Communist (and atheist) rule.
Interesting article. I’ve only skimmed it, but one thing I’d be interested in seeing is a demographic breakdown of where the new faithful are coming from.
Ie. are they predominantly older Chinese people who are reverting to the faiths of their youth now that the barriers thrown up by the communists are disappearing? Or are they younger people who are discovering the faith of their grandparents for the first time?
On a personal observation, about two-thirds of the Chinese language partners I’ve had since arriving back in Australia last year have also been taking Christian religious instruction of some sort. However, not a single one of them of them is particularly religious (the most religious of them are Taiwanese who have a vague commitment to Buddhism), and most of them see religion as a bit goofy.
On whether it’s younger or older Chinese who are becoming increasingly religious, that’s a really good question, I’d be interested to know that as well. Based on the very anecdotal accounts I’ve read, F G (before it was banned) seemed to be most popular among middle-aged and older people who wanted a more spiritual and community-oriented side to life — and it was a new religion, but maybe resonated because it incorporated elements of traditional religions that they on some level grew up with. Maybe the broader religious revival looks something like that… that’s just a guess though, it would be interesting to learn more about it.
And interesting about your language partners — so why do they want to learn about Christianity? Because they think it’ll help them to integrate into Australian society?
From what they’ve said, it’s a combination of:
- interest in Western culture
- general curiousity about something that they’ve never been exposed to before and a desire to see if there’s anything in it
- free language tuition (there are apparently some Christian churches that will go out to their house to provide religious instruction)
I was quite surprised when they first started telling me – as I said, none of them is a religious believer in any sense of the word.
I’m not sure about that integrating into Australian culture is an important goal (most of my language partners have already gone back to China/Taiwan or going back early next year anyway). If it is, then they’re going about it the wrong way, as Australia is a fairly secular society.