Simply 1 in 10 Chinese say they’re affiliated with a ‘formal’ faith: Pew survey

Only 1 in 10 Chinese adults mentioned they “formally identify” with a faith, regardless that many maintain spiritual beliefs or observe spiritual traditions, a brand new Pew Research Center research exhibits.

About 75% of respondents mentioned they’d visited the graves of relations no less than as soon as within the earlier yr. Such visits “frequently” contain leaving choices of foods and drinks to the deceased and burning paper cash on the graves.

And 47% mentioned they interact within the custom of arranging objects and bodily area “to achieve harmony and ensure good luck in life.”

These and different practices are seen as cultural traditions with “spiritual underpinnings,” Pew mentioned, including that formal spiritual identification in China seems to have plateaued over the previous decade.

Thirty-three p.c mentioned they imagine within the Buddha or a “bodhisattva,” an enlightened being. Another 26% mentioned they burn incense “a few times a year or more” to worship varied deities, whereas 18% mentioned they imagine in Taoist deities.

But solely 10% admitted having a faith, maybe as a result of the Chinese Communist Party strongly advocates atheism.

Self-reported attendance at spiritual actions dropped from 11% in 2012 to maybe 3% in 2021, a consequence hampered by pandemic-era survey limitations. Identification with a faith dropped from 12% in 2012 to an estimated 7% 9 years later. Those figures, Pew mentioned, got here from the Chinese General Social Survey carried out by researchers at Renmin University.

Government strain in opposition to faith in China seems in different guises. In current years, the federal government underneath President Xi Jinping has focused Christian church buildings unaffiliated with state-sponsored spiritual organizations.

It’s estimated that greater than 1 million Chinese Muslims, primarily within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, have been detained in “specially built internment camps,” Pew reported, citing U.S. authorities knowledge.

Mr. Xi’s authorities additionally has declared teams such because the Falun Gong, the Children of God, the World Elijah Gospel Mission Society and the Unification Church as “xiejiao,” which interprets as “evil cults” in English, Pew mentioned.

The new Pew report, “Measuring Religion in China,” surveyed greater than a decade’s price of knowledge, together with a 2021 research that researchers admit was hampered by COVID-19 limitations on canvassing.

Pew mentioned it’s troublesome to get a exact deal with on present spiritual practices in China partially as a result of “there may be reason to doubt [the] reliability or completeness” of presidency statistics.

Incomplete protection within the Chinese General Social Survey’s 2021 canvass may also be an element. During that yr, when quite a few areas had been underneath COVID-19 lockdowns, researchers at Renmin University surveyed 19 provinces, municipalities and autonomous areas, Pew reported. The group famous that CGSS pollsters collected knowledge in all 28 provinces in 2018.

Pew additionally mentioned Chinese language terminology differentiates spiritual practices in that nation from the remainder of the world. In China, such practices transcend these categorized within the Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism to incorporate different religion techniques and people beliefs comparable to feng shui.

The group insisted such obstacles shouldn’t sideline efforts to know faith in China.

“By virtue of its huge population, China is important to any effort to assess global religious trends,” Pew mentioned within the report.