The Future of Chinese Religions

The Uyghur Question in Contemporary China

“…In fact, during the Cultural Revolution, Muslims were at times forced to eat pork. 33 Under Communist rule, observance of Islamic rules and customs became even harder. 34 During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, all religious activities and organisations went underground, giving the picture that China had no more religion.…”

“…By nature, Islam is a proselytising religion, but it entered China as the religion of certain ethnic groups, and this is how it survived. 31 The strength of Islamic culture varies enormously amongst Muslims in China. Thus, the Hui of Fujian have been much more relaxed about their Islamic identity and are traditionally loyal to the Chinese state, with there being no suggestion that they would want to secede from China.…”

“…The word 'religion' did not exist in Chinese vocabulary until the late 19 th century when it entered through Japanese translations of European works and terminology. 1 There seems to be a discrepancy in what has been stated in the Chinese Constitution in relation to treatment towards ethnic groups and religious communities, and what is actually practiced by the state, and this article tries to look at this discrepancy. The question that this paper tries to answer is: To what extent have Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies towards the Uyghur community changed from the 1960s until more recent times?…”

Are Risk-Taking Persons Less Religious? Risk Preference, Religious Affiliation, and Religious Participation in Taiwan

“…When it comes to the specific cultural context of Chinese society, thoughts and behaviors contrary to the Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist teachings are perceived as sins and crimes and are subject to severe punishments in life after death (Berling 1997; Ching 1993; Fowler and Fowler 2008; Goodrich 1981). Along with killers, liars, drunkards, meat‐eaters, cheaters, prostitutes, thieves, and other convicts, “[t]hose who have omitted to pray, who do not perform the rituals, who do not distribute printed prayers, who do not repent, nonworshipers, and skeptics, all go to Hell” (Goodrich 1981:106).…”

Violation and Resistance

“…The Chinese term for religion, zongjiao, a term that goes back only to the 19th century when it was imported from Japan (Ching, 1993), must therefore be seen as embedded in multiple political and rhetorical contexts, signifying the semicolonial era (the era also of heightened Western missionary activity in China), the past (traditional culture wedded to feudalism), and also the peripheral (either defining of minority ethnicity, as in the case of Islam, or as "deficient," outside a mainstream paradigm of secular rationality) (Hsiung et al, 2001, p. 15). …”