Trends of Religious Markets China

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Contrasting Trends of ReligiousMarkets in Contemporary Mainland

China and in TaiwanJiexia Elisa Zhai

Overview of Religious Landscapes in Taiwan andChina

During the past half-century, both China and Taiwan have experi-enced dramatic social and political change. Taiwans economy hasgrown dramatically and has become one of the primary export soci-eties in the world and one of the most developed regions in EastAsia. On the other side of the Taiwan Strait, after decades of polit-ical turmoil and closed-door policy, China has opened to theworld and has risen to a new economic and political superpowerunder globalization. However, these two culturally connected yetsocially contrasting societies have also experienced vital religious

transformations.1 The patterns of growth and composition of thereligious markets seem quite different from each other; whileBuddhism and other traditional or folk religions are thriving inTaiwan, Christianity remains stagnant despite decades of evangelis-tic work. Despite years of tight religious regulation and atheisticeducation in Mainland China, ironically, it seems that the Chinesepeople are experiencing a spiritual awakening under an overall

JIEXIA ELISA ZHAI (BA, Peking University; MA, PhD, University of Texas atAustin) is an assistant professor, Department of Sociology and Gerontologyand Asian/Asian American Studies, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Her articleshave appeared inSociology of Religion, Review of Religious Research, andSocio-logical Spectrum. Special interests include comparative and empirical study ofreligion, marriage and family, and China and Chinese Diaspora. I would like tothank Phillip G. Autry, Christopher Marsh, and Fenggang Yang for their valuablecomments and suggestions.

Journal of Church and Statevol. 52 no. 1, pages 94111; doi:10.1093/jcs/csq028Advance Access publication May 19, 2010# The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the J. M. DawsonInstitute of Church-State Studies. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail:

[email protected]

1. Joseph B. Tamney and Linda Hsueh-Ling Chiang, Modernization, Globaliza-tion, and Confucianism in Chinese Societies(Westport: Praeger, 2002).

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irreligious environment. Unlike the Taiwan case, Christianity hasbecome one of the fastest growing religions in contemporary Main-land China.2

Since the lifting of martial law in Taiwan in 1987, the islands reli-

gious market has thrived and experienced vital growth. Large Bud-dhist organizations (such as Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu ChiAssociation, Buddhas Light Mountain Monastery, Dharma DrumMountain, and Chung Tai Chan Monastery) are growing, becomingincreasingly visible, and actively participating in politics and com-munity involvement.3 Local Taoist or folk temple religions are alsocontinuously gaining popularity. The consistent growth of folk andtraditional religions in Taiwan seems to be boosted, at least in part,

by the islands ongoing economic development and increasingly

widespread commercialism. In particular, Feng Shui, fortune-telling,and An-Tai-Sui (a ritual to seek protection, prosperity, and to avoid

bad omens) are not only popular, but seem to meet the psychologicalneeds of the Taiwanese who are facing uncertainty from social andpolitical transformation and from the rising pressures of unstablemarkets.4 Interestingly, even among those non-religious Taiwa-nese, not only older generations but also businessmen, entrepre-neurs, college students, and young intellectuals use various folkpractices to bring them peace and fortune, to protect businesses,

or to increase the chances of experiencing better futures.5

The revival in Taiwan of Chinese traditional and folk religions,however, seems to have begun as the golden age of Taiwans Chris-tian churches was drawing to a close. Indeed, the Taiwan churchesexperienced a heyday of Christianity that lasted from the late1940s into the mid-1960s. Scholars attribute such a golden agegrowth partially to the role Christian churches played in post-Chinese

2. Fenggang Yang, Religious Trends in China and Their Social Implications.

Feature essay of the Freeman Report, a monthly newsletter of the FreemanChair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies(CSIS), 7, no. 3 (2009): 1 3.3. Canteng Jiang,Researches in One Hundred Years of Taiwan Buddhist History(translated title) (Taipei: Nan Tian, 1996); Charles B. Jones, Buddhism in Taiwan:Religion and the State, 1660 1990(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999);Richard Madsen, Democracys Dharma: Religious Renaissance and PoliticalDevelopment in Taiwan(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).4. Hei-yuan Chiu, Taiwans Folk Religion. In the Evaluation and Perspectives ofCultural Development of R.O.C. in 1989 (Taipei: Ministry of Interior Affairs,1990), 23 48; Paul R. Katz, Morality Books and Taiwanese Identitythe

Texts of the Palace of Guidance, Journal of Chinese Religions27 (1999): 6992; Paul R. Katz and Murray Rubinstein, eds., Identity Politics and the Studyof Popular Religion in Postwar Taiwan, inReligion, Culture, and the Creationof Taiwanese Identities(New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003).5. Chiu, Religion, Occultism, and Social Change: Volume Collection of Researchon Religions in Taiwan(translated title) (2006).

Trends of Religious Markets in Mainland China and in Taiwan

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Civil War (i.e., post-1949) Taiwan. Many Mainlanders who left theirhomes and retreated to Taiwan before or around 1949 began to expe-rience loneliness and isolation. The conversion to Christianityseemed to provide a new system of social and emotional support

along with a sense of belonging to Taiwanese society. With hundredsof foreign missionaries or clergy who fled to Taiwan after their expul-sion from Mainland China, churches gained strength with new clergyand financial and foreign support. Churches also provided badlyneeded aid and relief to the millions who had been affected by theChinese Civil War.6 Many Taiwanese were attracted to Christianity

because of the food and social services that these churches couldprovide, and the number of rice Christians grew quickly in a fewshort years.7 Churches were also the first to promote modern educa-

tion, medical work, and civil services in Taiwan. During the decadesof martial law and one-party rule, churches heavily influenced theislands democratization process.8 The Taiwan Presbyterian Churchwas a major force fighting against the political corruption of the Kuo-mintang (KMT), speaking out against injustice toward aboriginalmountain people, and promoting Taiwans independence and self-hood internationally.9 However, 1965 proved to be a turning pointfor the development of Christianity in Taiwan.10 As Taiwan entereda post-crisis era, people did not feel the same need to turn to a

Western religion any more for food or financial support as theydid during the bleak years after 1949. By the early 1970s, churchesin Taiwan (especially the largest Protestant groupTaiwan Presbyter-ian Church) had shifted their collective focus to the promotion ofTaiwans selfhood, independence, and international political rights,and made assertive political stands against corruption. In terms ofquantitative large-scale growth of membership, however, churches

began to reach a plateau stage without gaining much success

6. Zhengping Lin,Christianity and Taiwan(translated title) (1996).7. Murray A. Rubinstein, Mission of Faith, Burden of Witness: The PresbyterianChurch in the Evolution of Modern Taiwan, 1865 1989, American AsianReview 9, no. 2 (1991): 70108; Yangen Zheng, Rooted in Its Own Land:Taiwan Christianity(translated title).8. Benxuan Lin, Church and State Conflict in Taiwan (translated title) (1994);Lin,Christianity and Taiwan(translated title); Murray A. Rubinstein, Christian-ity and Democratization in Modern Taiwan: The Presbyterian Church and theStruggle for Minnan/Hakka Selfhood in the Republic of China, inReligion inModern Taiwan: Tradition and Innovation in a Changing Society, ed. Philip

Clart and Charles B. Jones (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003), 204 56.9. Alan Hunter and Kim-Kwong Chan, Protestantism in Contemporary China(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); Rubinstein, Christianity andDemocratization in Modern Taiwan; Tamney and Chiang, Modernization, Glob-alization, and Confucianism in Chinese Societies.10. Rubinstein, Christianity and Democratization in Modern Taiwan.

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competing with other religions. For example, according to Taiwan

Ministry of Interior statistics, in 1960 there were 3,702 temples (Bud-dhist, Taoist, and folk religion sites) and 1,500 churches (Catholicand Protestant), and for every church there were about 2.5 temples.By 2008, however, temples surpassed churches in Taiwan by nearlya four-to-one ratio (figure1).

On the other side of the Taiwan Strait, Mainland Chinese societyhas undergone a dramatically different religious transformation.In pre-1949 China, Chinese were very religious and religion waseverywhere.11 Religion was integrated into almost every aspect of

Chinese peoples lives. Temples were everywhere; ancestorstablets were properly displayed at home and their spirits were ven-erated; religious festivals and holidays were preserved; monasteriesor seminaries were open. Scholars who travel to contemporaryTaiwan cannot help but be reminded of the similarity between thepre-1949 religious situation in China and the intimate connectionreligion has to peoples daily lives in todays Taiwan. In MainlandChina, however, during the dark time of the Cultural Revolutionand religious regulation and suppression, all temples were forced

to close or be converted to tourist sites regulated by local-level orcentral communist authorities. Monks or priests were forced toleave the monastery, and some were even compelled by authoritiesto marry. Many folk religious practices or religious festivals werecriticized and denounced as superstition. After 1979 signs of offi-cial religious tolerance appeared, including the reopening of manytemples and churches. Still, however, state control over religionhas remained tight, especially toward any organized forms of reli-gious activities or open religious gatherings.12 Thus, many

Figure 1 Taiwan official religion statistics.Source:Department of Civil Affairs, Ministry of the Interior of Taiwan.

11. C. K. Yang,Religion in Chinese Society(Los Angeles: University of CaliforniaPress, 1961).12. Jonathan Chao and Rosanna Chong, A History of Christianity in SocialistChina, 1949 1997(East Anglia, UK: CMI Publishing Co., Ltd., 1997); Peng Liu,Nation, Religion, Law(Beijing: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Press, 2006).


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grassroots religious practices turn underground, thereby foster-ing a large and complicated grey religious market in China.13

Decades of communist atheistic ideology propaganda, have, ironi-cally, left a spiritual vacuum. This vacuum has in turn caused

many in society to feel unfulfilled. With the rise of materialism, cor-ruption, and social unease, Mainland Chinese are seeking alterna-tive ideologies or world views capable of providing meaning andvalue.

As China develops economically, scholars and policymakers havebegun to notice the growing spiritual hunger and the revival of spi-rituality in Mainland China.14 Among the most visible trends, Chris-tianity is one of the fastest growing religions in contemporaryChina, with approximately 35130 million members.15

What Do the Surveys Say?

Many scholars have explored the religious vitality of Taiwan or therevival of spirituality in contemporary China, yet little work has

been done to directly compare religion in these two societies, espe-cially from a large-scale, empirical research perspective. Empiricalsocial scientific study of religion in China is a very recent phenom-

enon. Although social scientific study of religion has developed as astrong new field in Western academia, it is still a young and emerg-ing area of study in China and Taiwan.16 After first mapping anoverall picture of these two religious markets using some of thelatest survey data, this study will explore cultural aspects of reli-gious market differencesin particular, the status and develop-ment of Christianity in Taiwan and China.

The primary data come from two large-scale representativesurveys: the Taiwan Social Change Survey(TSCS) and the Spiritual

13. Chao and Chong, A History of Christianity in Socialist China, 19491997;Fenggang Yang, The Red, Black, and Gray Markets of Religion in China,Socio-logical Quarterly47 (2006): 93122.14. Yang, Religious Trends in China and Their Social Implications, Featureessay of the Freeman Report, a monthly newsletter of the Freeman Chair inChina Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) 7,no. 3 (2009).15. David Aikman, Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Changing the GlobalBalance of Power(Washington, DC: Regnery, 2003); Tony Lambert, Chinas Chris-tian Millions, rev. and updated (Abingdon, Oxon: Monarch Books, 2006); Jiexia

Elisa Zhai, Byron R. Johnson, and Jianbo Huang, manuscript, Empirical Reflec-tions on Christianity in China.16. Chiu,Religion, Occultism, and Social Change: Volume Collection of Researchon Religions in Taiwan(translated title); Yang, Between Secularist Ideology andDesecularizing Reality: The Birth and Growth of Religious Research in Commu-nist China.


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Life Study of Chinese Residents (SLSCR). TSCS attempts to depictthe long-term impact of social change on society in Taiwan. It has

been conducted annually most years since 1985, with each yearssurvey containing a nation-wide probability sample of about 1,900

adults between twenty and seventy-five years of age. In the religionmodules, TSCS asks about denominations and frequency of serviceattendance, as well as unique measures about multiple aspects ofthe Chinese religious contexts, such as folk religion practices,

beliefs about afterlife and spirits, ancestor worship, and the like.It is one of the highest quality surveys among the existing workon religion in Chinese societies. Data about religion in contempo-rary China come from the SLSCR, the latest and nationally repr-esentative sample from Mainland China.17 SLSCR provides rich

measures of religion that are suited for a Chinese context. A nation-wide probability sampling of 7,021 adults in China, the SLSCR is thefirst survey of its kind ever conducted in the nation. HorizonkeyInformation and Consulting Co., Ltd. administered the survey

between May and July of 2007. With two pre-tests, the survey wasformally carried out in fifty-six locales in China, including threemetropolitan cities, six province-level capital cities, eleven region-level cities, sixteen small towns, and twenty administrative vil-lages.18 It is comparable with TSCS in many ways, thus enabling

an empirical comparison between these two societies.19

What is Your Religion?

In TSCS 2004, respondents were asked what is your religion. 30.6percent of respondents reported folk religion, 15.3 percent Taoism,24 percent Buddhism, 3.2 percent Protestantism and 0.5 percentCatholicism, 2 percent other, and 20.7 percent no religion. Inother words, on average, seven out of ten contemporary Taiwanese

belong to Buddhism, Taoism, or various folk religion; only 20percent of respondents reported no religion. In related studies,scholars show that even among these Taiwanese who proclaim noreligion, various religious rituals or customs were practiced, suchas fortune-telling, seeing Feng Shui, An-Tai-Sui (a temple ritual toseek peace and protection), and others.

17. The SLSCR is the same survey other times referred to as the Empirical Study

of Values in Chinese (ESVC).18. The SLSCR does not have samples from the Xinjiang Uyghur AutonomousRegion and the Tibet Autonomous Region.19. More information about TSCS are available on the Taiwan Academia Sinicawebsite: http://www.ios.sinica.edu.tw/sc/en/home2.php. See also Zhai, Huang,and Wei, Empirical Reflections on Christianity in China.


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In a similar question from SLSCR 2007, respondents from Main-land China were asked: Regardless of whether you have been tochurches or temples before, what is your religion? In contrastwith the question from Taiwan, eight out of ten contemporary

Chinese reported do not have or believe in any religion; about16.7 percent reported believing in Buddhism, 2.3 percent Protestan-tism and 0.2 percent Catholicism, and only less than 1 percent ofthe total sample reported believed in various other religions. Inother words, contrasting with 80 percent of Taiwanese who

believe in a religion, 80 percent of Mainland Chinese reported donot have any religion. Despite the fact that scholars such asRobert Weller point out that ordinary Chinese may have difficultyunderstanding the word religion (zongjiao), as it is a foreign

concept directly translated from Japanese and did not exist inChinese history, this question can still be used as an indicator forthe overall irreligiousness of contemporary Mainland Chinasociety and the prevalence of religion in Taiwan society.

Religious Participation and Practices

Both TSCS and SLSCR have posed excellent questions to measurereligiosity in Chinese societies beyond formal religious affiliations.As religion in Chinese societies is often diffused instead of institu-tionalized, it is important to measure religion beyond affiliation.Thus for example, in SLSCR 2007, respondents were asked, In thepast year, which ones of the following activities did you participatein? Only 4 percent of respondents reported worshiped/prayed/

burned incense at a Buddhist or Taoist temple, and only .4percent of them reported attending any other formal religious serv-

ices in a Buddhist or Taoist temple; and only 1.4 percent reportedattending church services during the last year. Although this ques-tion focuses on religious participation instead of religious affilia-tion, the result is still consistent with the first question in that thevast majority of contemporary Chinese do not participate in reli-gious services or activities at a religious site. Interestingly, compar-ing the first question, even 16.7 percent of Chinese believe inBuddhism, and only less than 4 percent of the entire populationhave visited, prayed, or participated in Buddhist rituals last year.20

20. Similarly, fewer Mainland Chinese reported attending church services lastyear than the first question. As in the Chinese version of the survey, the wordchurch was translated as Jiao Tang, it could be perceived by the respondentsas it only refers to the Three-Self Church. Thus the house church participantsmay be reluctant to report going to church here.


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Similar to the Mainland China case, fewer percentages of Taiwa-nese in TSCS 2004 reported participating in various religious activ-ities than the percentage of Taiwanese who reported having areligious belief: only about 20 percent of samples reported partici-

pated in various activities such as meditation, reading sutra,reading the Bible, praying, or other personal religious activities.

Religious Practices and Beliefs Beyond Participation or Affiliation

Fortune-telling, Face-reading, Feng Shui, and Other Various Forms of

Religious PracticesAs scholars have pointed out, not only can religion in China be dif-fused into day-to-day life, and Chinese not only associate religionwith traditional rituals such as visiting temples or burning incense,

but they may also practice various religious customs without cate-gorizing them as religion.21 Therefore, it would be interesting tocompare the diffused religious practices in Mainland China andTaiwan as well. For example, in 2004 TSCS, more than one-half ofthe respondents reported believing or strongly believing in fortune-

telling or face-reading, and almost three out of ten Taiwanesereported seeking out fortune-telling last year; also one in fiveTaiwanese reported seeing Feng Shui either for their house, fortheir business, or for themselves. Besides fortune-telling,An-Tai-Sui, a ritual of seeking protection, peace, and avoiding badomens, is among one of the most popular folk religious practices:more than 42 percent of Taiwanese reported practiced An-Tai-Sui,and almost 40 percent of Taiwanese reported using religiousobjects either in their cars or wearing them on their bodies for pro-

tection from bad omens and for safety.On the other hand, in a related question from SLSCR 2007, Main-land respondents were asked: During the past year, have you doneany forms of fortune telling, including face or palm reading? Incontrast with the Taiwan case, 86 percent of Mainland Chinese inthe SLSCR sample reported never practicing any of these religiousactivities; almost nine out of ten Mainland Chinese reported neverwearing any religious objects either on themselves or in their carsor homes to seek protection or to avoid bad omens. This demon-

strates that even in terms of diffused religious practices, mostcontemporary Mainland Chinese seem irreligious.

21. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society; Eric R. Reinders, Borrowed Gods andForeign Bodies: Christian Missionaries Image Chinese Religion(Berkeley: Univer-sity of California Press, 2004).


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Beliefs in the Existence of Souls after People Die, and Beliefs about

Heaven and HellAs for differing religious beliefs, there may not be many concepts

as significant to the Chinese as their beliefs regarding life after

death, the existence of souls, spirits, and evil forces, or theirbeliefs about heaven or hell. Thus, it is necessary to furthercompare these religious beliefs beyond affiliations or practices.For example, in TSCS 2004, when asked about their beliefs in theexistence of souls after death, 72 percent of Taiwanese respondentsreported believing or strongly believing so; 65 percent of Taiwaneserespondents reported believing or strongly believing in the exis-tence of heaven or hell. In sharp contrast, only 13 percent of Main-land Chinese respondents reported believing in the existence of

souls after death, and only 7 percent of Mainland Chinese reportedbelieving in the existence of hell, compared with 65 percent ofTaiwanese believing so. Only 2 percent of Mainlander Chinese

believed in the existence of demons, spirits, or other evil forces.Further, about 60 percent of TSCS respondents believed or strongly

believed if the souls of deceased ones do not have people to worshipthem, they will turn into wandering souls (troublesome souls),and 70 percent TSCS respondents agreed or strongly agreed thatit is good to have descents worship them after they die. Eighty-five

percent of Taiwanese reported have venerated ancestors or Baibaibefore, while only 16 percent Mainland respondents believed in theexistence of ancestral spirits, and only 5 percent of them reportedhaving ancestors tablets displayed at home.

Again, this demonstrates the stunning effect of decades of com-munist atheism education and its uprooting of some of the mostcommon religious beliefs in China such as belief in souls, spirits,or ancestors. It shows the sharp contrast toward religious beliefs

between the contemporary Taiwanese society and Mainland

society. C. K. Yang pointed out that the fear of the dead and super-natural punishment was an important social control mechanism tomaintain social order and family harmony. Fearing the dead is thusnot only a mere religious act but it is also associated with the coreconcept of filial piety.22 If the elderly are not taken care of, theirsouls or spirits may not be able to rest and they turn into anangry wandering spirit. The very act of not venerating ancestorsand their spirits not only indicates a lacking of filial piety, it is a vio-lation of moral standards, and may entail a spiritual punishment by

the deceased. Although attitudes toward ancestor worship and thefear of the dead may still be central to contemporary Taiwanese

beliefs, these concepts seem to be quite foreign to the

22. Yang,Religion in Chinese Society.


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contemporary Mainland Chinese. Growing studies about theextremely high elderly suicide rate in rural Mainland China oftenfind the associations between the abandonment of superstitious

beliefs toward ancestors, life after death, and spiritual punishment

with severe levels of abuse toward the elderly and a high rate ofelderly suicide.23

Views Toward Religion

Besides directly examining a respondents religious beliefs or prac-tices, it is also necessary to explore how Chinese view religion in

general. Is it true that most contemporary Mainland Chinese donot have religious affiliations or beliefs due to the fact that they per-ceive religion to be a negative influence on society, or is religion badin general? What about their views toward particular religions suchas Buddhism or Christianity? Again, the rich data from TSCS andSLSCR allow these questions to be explored. For example, in TSCS2004, six out of ten contemporary Taiwanese agreed or stronglyagreed with the statement that the more people believe in religion,the better moral atmosphere a society will have. In other words, the

majority of Taiwanese seem to have positive views toward theimpact of religion in society. In a similar question in SLSCR 2007,interestingly, about six out of ten contemporary Chinese also con-sidered religion to have various positive impacts on society, suchas improving moral standard, helping to cultivate ones charac-ter, teaching people good deeds, or improving ones health.Only about 20 percent of respondents considered religion has nopositive impact on society, and the other 18 percent reportedhard to say. In other words, although contemporary Mainland

Chinese do not have or are actively involved in a religion, they arenot hostile toward it.

When further questioning a respondents opinion regarding par-ticular religions, the results also seem surprising. For example,There are many religions in China today, and people have differentviews regarding these religions. Do you agree or disagree with thefollowing statements? a) Buddhism is a religion originated inIndia, hence it is not suitable for Chinese people, or, b) Christianityis a western religion, it is not suitable for Chinese people (figure 2).

23. Shenghai He, Perspectives on Suicide in Northwest Minority Rural ChinatheCase of Village G (2010). See Chinese Sociology website: http://www.sociology.cass.net.cn/shxw/shwt/P02010011831160419737.pdf; and Chen, Bofeng, Inter-generational Change and Elderly SuicideCase Study from Rural Hubei JingshanRegion (2009), She Hui Xue Yan Jiu (Sociology Research) 4: 1 21.


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Although Buddhism is a religion with a non-Chinese origin, it iswell accepted in China as a Chinese religion. So it is not surprisingwhen 60 percent of the respondents disagree with the statement

that Buddhism is a religion from India, thus it is not suitable forthe Chinese. However, the fact remains that 16 percent ofChinese consider Buddhism as a foreign religion, and approxi-mately 22 percent do not have a clear answer. On the other hand,more than half of Mainland Chinese disagreed that Christianity isa Western religion and thus is not suitable for the Chinese people.As Christianity has been regulated or attacked as a foreign reli-gion in Chinas long history, it is surprising to see only about onein five contemporary Mainland Chinese consider Christianity as a

Western religion, and is thus not suitable for the Chinese. Thisfinding may reflect the evidence of long-term indigenization ofChristianity in China. Further examination of the distribution byeducational levels shows that the more educated the Chineserespondents are, the less likely they would consider Christianity

Figure 2 Percent comparison of attitude toward Christianity and Bud-dhism (SLSCR 2007).

Figure 3 Percent distribution of respondents agreeing that Christianity isa western religion and thus is not suitable for china by education levels.


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as a western religion, and thus is not suitable for China, as indicatedin figure3.

So how should we understand the overall acceptance of Christian-ity in a generally irreligious Mainland China, and the low interest in

Christianity in an overall very religious Taiwan? Or how did Main-land China achieve the process of receiving Christianity as a non-western religion compared with decades ago?

Indigenization and the Status of Christianity inMainland China

The turning point for Christianity in Mainland China occurred in1949. Connections between Chinese churches with churchesoutside of China were initially strained and soon severed.24

Churches were sanctioned from their imperialistic connectionsin order to clean out any political penetration through religion,foreign missionaries and clergy were forced to leave China, andthe government directed that Christianity be reformed in order to

be compatible to socialism.25 A patriotic anti-imperialism move-ment was organized and the Three Self Patriotic Movement(TSPM) was established.26 Under the slogan uniting all churches,Christian churches from all denominations were organized intoone unified church under TSPM without any further referencesto, or recognition of, a churchs denominational tradition. Inpost-1949 Taiwan, by contrast, all denominations remained in exis-tence. According toTian Feng(1958), the official TSPM publication,denominational difference itself was considered imperialistic,

bound to create division among believers, and an agent for impe-rialistic mission stations. All churches inside China followedunified administrative principles issued by TSPM.27 In 1949, therewere more than 20,000 churches. By 1958, however, after adecade of unification and reformation, fewer than 100 authorizedchurches existed in Mainland China. Church teachings wererequired to reform as well in order to fit the Christian messageto the requirements of TSPM-issued guidelines, and to re-educatepastors with communist ideology.28

Even before 1949, many ordinary Chinese, often finding variousdenomination labels to be confusing and foreign, were unable to

24. Chao and Chong,A History of Christianity in Socialist China, 19491997.

25. Ibid.26. Three Self means self-support, self-governance, and self-propagation. SeeHunter and Chan,Protestantism in Contemporary China.27. Chao and Chong,A History of Christianity in Socialist China, 19491997.28. George N. Patterson,Christianity in Communist China(Waco: Word Books,1969); Hunter and Chan, Protestantism in Contemporary China.


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distinguish the doctrinal differences among Methodist, Baptist, orPresbyterian theology. In part by taking advantage of such senti-ments, the implementation of the strict reforms and controls out-lined above launched the process of Christianitys indigenization

in China, and progressively strengthened restrictions acceleratedthe trend.29

Although the Three-Self Patriotic Movement was launched by theCCP shortly after they came to power, initiatives to indigenize theChristian church in China can be traced back to grassroots move-ments from the early 1900s. Such movements grew further inresponse to the rise of nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s in reac-tion against foreign church or mission organizations. Some of themost influential of such movements included the True Jesus

Church Movement, the Jesus Family, and the Little Flock orLocal Church of Watchman Nee. These groups were entirely inde-pendent from foreign leadership or Western denominationalsystems, and they accepted no funds from foreign missionaries.30

Although many of them still retained strong western theologicalinfluences, these churches and their respective leaders tried touse Chinese hymns, adopt Chinese worship styles, employChinese clergy, and explain biblical principles in the context ofChinese culture.31 It was estimated that by 1949 more than a

quarter of the countrys total Protestant population may havebelonged to these indigenous Chinese Christian groups.32 Some ofthem, such as True Jesus Church and the Little Flock, expandedglobally and today have millions of believers worldwide. AlthoughChina experienced strict religious restriction and suppressionfrom 1949 until the onset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, thisperiod was a time of dramatic growth for Chinas house churches.The house church phenomenona truly indigenous religionwithout foreign support or clergy, a religion which rejected

western denominational worship rituals and adopted a pseudo-family organizational structurefurther weakened the link of

29. Even in contemporary Taiwan, the foreignness of denominations and thewestern worship styles and church rituals may still keep many traditionallyreligiously minded Taiwanese outside the church doors. See Lin, Christianityand Taiwan(translated title); Zheng,Rooted in Its Own Land: Taiwan Christian-ity(translated title).30. Daniel H. Bays, Indigenous Protestant Churches in China, 1900 1937: APentecostal Case Study, in Indigenous Responses to Western Christianity, ed.

Steven Kaplan (New York: NYU Press, 1995).31. Hunter and Chan,Protestantism in Contemporary China.32. J. Gordon Melton and Constance Jones, Some Indigenous Chinese Religionsin the West: Case of the Local Church and the True Jesus Church. Paper pre-sented at the Chinese Christianity on the Mainland and in Diaspora Commun-ities Conference, Sophia University, Tokyo, 2005.


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Christianity as a foreign religion.33 The rise of these indigenousmovements, together with the ongoing political influence of theCCPs Three-Self Patriotic Movement, may have further hastenedthe indigenization of Christianity in China.

Christianity was not the only religion affected by decades of atheis-tic propaganda and scienticism education in post-1949 China.Various folk religions and practices were banned, dismissed byauthorities as superstition. After decades of suppression, folk reli-gious practices and beliefs have become irrelevant to the lives ofmost ordinary Chinese, especially to urban residents. The empiricalsurvey findings discussed above demonstrate the widespread irreli-giousness which resulted from decades of communist reformation.However, with Chinas moralities system collapsing and corruption

rising, people are searching for a new alternative morality to fulfillthe ideological vacuum. Neither irreligiousness nor scienticismprop-aganda has been able to satisfy the Chinese peoples spiritualhunger. The rise of de-foreignized Christianity, however, mayquench such rising hunger. Although Christianity may no longer beperceived as a foreign religion, many in China still consider it to bea progressive and new world view and value system.

The Unsuccessful Indigenization of Christianity andthe Sustaining Adoption of Buddhism and FolkReligion in Taiwan

In contrast to the unified TSPM church in Mainland China, Protes-tant churches in Taiwan have long-term roots with mother churchesfrom Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. Taiwan churchesoften receive material support from foreign churches along withclergy and other administrative support, invite foreign speakers,and also follow worship liturgical rituals similar to those found inforeign churches. Most Taiwan Protestant churches tend to be con-servative in theology, focusing on preaching salvation, redemption,and eternity. As Chinese traditional religions tend to be pragmaticand this-world oriented, focusing on protection health, luck, andworldly success,34 the rise of materialism and commercialism inTaiwan has further given pragmatic folk religions a strong

boost.35 The other-world oriented Christian message may not be

33. Chao and Chong,A History of Christianity in Socialist China, 19491997.34. Tamney and Chiang, Modernization, Globalization, and Confucianism inChinese Societies; Yang, Religion in Chinese Society; Chiu, Religion, Occultism,and Social Change: Volume Collection of Research on Religions in Taiwan(trans-lated title).35. Chiu, Taiwans Folk Religion, 23 48.


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able to attract a large folk religion-minded audience that cares forworldly success and protection. Thus, from the liturgical traditionto theological orientations, Christian churches stand in stark con-trast with the folk religious believers who constitute the majority

of the islands population. Canteng Jiang36 further pointed outthat although Taiwan Christians made efforts to indigenize thegospel, such indigenization may not be able to succeed if itfocuses only on evangelizing in the Taiwanese language withoutintegrating the Gospel message into Chinese culture, art, or

beliefs. Since the 1970s, many churches, especially Catholic ones,initiated several movements promoting Chinese culture in religiouspractices: designing church buildings in Chinese style, requestingthat clergy wear ancient Chinese-style clothing, and observing

Chinese folk religious holidays, for example.37 Because most ofthose movements were top-down rather than grassroots move-ments, however, churches attempts at cultural integration did notcause many in Taiwan to view Christianity as more Chinese ormore Taiwanese. Catholicism, in fact, is still associated with for-eignness by most Taiwanese.38

However, the one area that may be the source of greatest tensionbetween Christianity and the folk religion of mainstream Taiwaneseculture is the issue of ancestor veneration. Most Protestant churches

in Taiwan, being theologically conservative and viewing most folkreligious practices as idol worship, uncompromisingly opposeancestor veneration. To many Taiwanese, however, ancestor venera-tion is not only a religious act; rather, it is inseparably tied to deeplyheld core beliefs regarding filial piety, family harmony, and fearingthe dead and the punishment of the dead, as explained byC. K. Yang.39 Rejecting ancestor veneration, therefore, could notonly be considered an irreligious act, but also a violation of familymorality and tradition, thus causing family division and harm to

the familys wellbeing. For a traditionally minded Taiwanese, con-verting to a religion that opposes ancestor veneration and insteademphasizes an other-worldly salvation rather than maintaining

36. Canteng Jiang, Changes and Reflections on Buddhism in Modern Taiwan(translated title) (Taipei: Dong Da, 2003).37. Wenban Guo, Localization of Taiwan Catholicism (translated title). Paperpresented at the conference of Social Science Theory and Localization, hosted

by Nan-hua Management Institute, 1999.38. Several of these Mainland-founded indigenous Christian groups, such as

True Jesus Church, the Local Church, and several other Charismatic or Pentecos-tal groups, have also spread to and are rooted in Taiwan. Although they areamong the fastest growing Christian bodies (if not the only growing ones),they have not seemed to be able to alter the Taiwan churchs overall stagnantgrowth. See Guo, Localization of Taiwan Catholicism.39. Yang,Religion in Chinese Society.


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the existing family tradition and receiving blessings and protectionfrom ones ancestorscould be an exceedingly costly proposal.This clear tension regarding ancestor worship may continue toserve as a strong cultural force hindering Christianitys potential

to truly indigenize, spread, and develop throughout mainstreamTaiwanese culture. For a new religion to grow, as Rodney Starkpoints out, it must have sufficient cultural continuity with the exist-ing society; if Christianity places too much stress on one of the mostsalient aspects of cultural continuity in Taiwan to the point that it isseen as anti-cultural, it could experience difficulty in survivingand succeeding as a newer religion.40

As demonstrated in the previous section, after decades of reli-gious regulation and attempts to abolish folk religion or so-called

superstitions, most contemporary Mainland Chinese neitherbelieve in the existence of ancestors spirits nor preserve familyancestral altars and tablets at home. Furthermore, ancestorworship no longer holds a central place either in mainlanders reli-gious world views or in the cultural definitions of morality, filialpiety, or family relations. Ironically, decades of communist propa-ganda may have broken the resilient cultural continuity (especiallythat relating to ancestor worship) and helped remove barriers block-ing Christianitys capacity to grow in China as a non-foreign reli-

gion. In other words, the very powerful cultural forces hinderingthe spread of Christianity in Taiwan have already been effaced inthe Mainland. Rather than embracing the old, contemporaryChinese are anxiously searching for something new.

On the other hand, reflection on social changes in Taiwan duringthe past several decades illustrates that increasing prosperity on theisland has often not resulted in heightened levels of spiritual confi-dence. Instead of struggling to break from old tradition and search-ing for something new, Taiwan experienced higher levels of

uncertainty along with its economic development and becamemired in a vulnerable position that fell between political, social,and international boundaries.41 These uncertainties may furtheraccentuate the desire of Taiwans people to engage in a quest foridentity. Although Christian churches, especially the Taiwan Presby-terian Church, were among the pioneers supporting the causes of

40. Rodney Stark, How New Religion Succeed: A Theoretical Model, in TheFuture of New Religious Movements, ed. David G. Bromley and Phillip

E. Hammond (Macon: Mercer University Press, 1987).41. Katz, Morality Books and Taiwanese Identitythe Texts of the Palace ofGuidance; see also Katz and Rubinstein, Religion, Culture, and the Creationof Taiwanese Identities; Robert P. Weller, Living at the Edge: Religion, Capital-ism, and the End of the Nation-State in Taiwan, Public Culture 12, no. 2(2000): 47798.


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international political rights, selfhood, and independence forTaiwan, they may not be able to provide a strong enough sense ofidentity which would enable the Taiwanese mainstream popula-tion to see Taiwan churches as Chinese or Taiwanese. On the

other hand, folk religions and Buddhism caught on and providedsought-after cultural roots. Under such a broader social context ofsearching for Taiwanese or Chinese identity, Buddhism and otherfolk religion started to revive and thrive. Taking a cue from theirChristian church competitors, Buddhists started to congregation-alize temples, build hospitals and schools, provide Christian-stylesocial services as Taiwan churches do, and began reaching outmore fervently to younger generation Taiwanese. Katz42 furtherillustrates the sometimes complicated situations caused by the

active and successful outreach efforts of Buddhism and folk reli-gions among Taiwanese, and reveals that community-basedtemple religions could be used for political rallies during election.Weller further pointed out that the advent of large Buddhist organ-izations also attracted a large percentage of Taiwans nouveau riche.This happened in part because religion functions as a justificationfor the morality of the new wealth: by participating in philanthropicwork via Buddhist organizations, the newly rich receive social legit-imization. This new involvement in politics and the religionpoli-

tics connection may further deepen the indigenization ofBuddhism or folk religion in contemporary Taiwan that most apolit-ical Protestant churches left behind.

Summary and Conclusion

During the past fifty years, China and Taiwan have experienced dra-

matic political, economic, and social changes. Such changes havealso reflected on their religious markets. These two culturally con-nected societies have established contrasting religious characteris-tics, however. Empirical data have demonstrated that nine out often contemporary Taiwanese are religious: Taiwans religiousmarket is dominated by and has thrived in Buddhism, Taoism,and various folk religions, with approximately 5 percent Protestantsand Catholics. In contrast, most contemporary Mainland Chineseare not religious; Christianity, a small portion of the religious pop-

ulation, is not viewed as a foreign religion any more and has becomeone of the fastest growing religions. I argue that the process of indi-genization of Christianity in Mainland China and the unsuccessful

42. Katz and Rubenstein, Religion, Culture, and the Creation of TaiwaneseIdentities.


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process of indigenization in Taiwan may affect the contrasting reli-gious status in these two societies.

For most Chinese Christians, the attraction of Christianity maynot be viable because of its Westernness any more. With the dra-

matic economic and social change and the rising social inequalityand collapsing of traditional morality, contemporary Chinese may

be more tolerant toward Christianity as a source of progressivenessand a source of alternative worldview and value system, instead ofviewing it as a Western religion. On the other hand, along with eco-nomic changes, scholars have witnessed the uncompromising per-sistence of Taiwan religious culture, from its steady dominance offolk religions to the notable revival of Buddhism. Somehow, Christi-anity could not cast off its non-Chinese appeal and be accepted by

the vast majority of Taiwanese. When discussing the future of Chris-tianity in communist China and broader Asian societies, Patterson43

prophesized that the key to success of Christianity in this encoun-ter is the depth and extent of the witness of the dynamic gospel pre-sented by the indigenous groups in this countries. The ways inwhich a religion can achieve its indigenization in its local culturemay determine its success in the religious market. The old associa-tion of Christianity and western culture is dissolved in an overallirreligious China, yet the folk religion or Buddhism may continue

to hold on to its strong cultural roots in a religious Taiwan.

43. Patterson,Christianity in Communist China, 147.


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Trends of Religious Markets China