Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule - Hardcover

Yang, Fenggang

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199735654 ISBN 13: 9780199735655

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Religion in China survived the most radical suppression in human history--a total ban of any religion during and after the Cultural Revolution. All churches, temples, and mosques were closed down, converted for secular uses, or turned to museums for the purpose of atheist education. Over the last three decades, however, religion has survived and thrived even as China remains under Communist rule. Christianity ranks among the fastest-growing religions in the country, and many Buddhist and Daoist temples have been restored. The state even sponsors large Buddhist gatherings and ceremonies to venerate Confucius and the legendary ancestors of the Chinese people. On the other hand, quasi-religious qigong practices, once ubiquitous, are now rare. All the while, authorities have carried out waves of atheist propaganda, anti-superstition campaigns, severe crackdowns on the underground Christian churches and various ''evil cults.'' How do we explain religion in China today? How did religion survive the eradication measures in the 1960s and 1970s? How do various religious groups manage to revive despite strict regulations? Why have some religions grown fast in the reform era? Why have some forms of spirituality gone through dramatic turns? In Religion in China, Fenggang Yang provides a comprehensive overview of the religious change in China under Communism.

About this title

About the Author:

Fenggang Yang is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University.

Review:

"Yang's book Religion in China has brilliant chapters, some controversial but all provacative and worth considering." --The New York Review of Books

"Yang's argument cuts to the heart of contemporary discourses, and does so in a manner that is both nuanced and thought-provoking. Brilliant work; very highly recommended." --Sociology of Religion

"This book, or at least the key parts of it, should be required reading in graduate seminars that cover the new paradigm. Yang's argument cuts to the heart of contemporary discourses, and does so in a manner that is both nuanced and thought-provoking. Despite the complexity of the theoretical issues at hand, this is also a very accessible work, with
enough detail to interest sinologists, yet not enough to burden nonspecialists--no
easy task! Brilliant work; very highly recommended."--Sociology of Religion

"Fenggang Yang, a sociologist at Purdue University, takes readers of his new book Religion in China on an overview tour of this dramatic historical peregrination... readers interested mainly in seeing this market framework applied to the dramatic changes in Chinese religion since 1949 will find much in Yang's book that is valuable and insightful." --American Journal of Sociology

"Yang's arguments about the factors driving religious change in China demand our attention." --The Christian Century

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0199735654
• ISBN 13: 9780199735655
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264