Constancy and Changes in the Distribution of Religious Groups in Contemporary China: Centering on Religion as a Whole, Buddhism, Protestantism and Folk Religion

Abstract

Since 1978, mass religious conversion has been a prominent feature of Chinese religious life. In the 1980s and 1990s, the “Five types of believers’ distribution (Wuduo, 五多)” were characterized by the inclusion of “more women”, “more elderly”, “more sick people”, “more rural residents”, and “more people with lower socioeconomic status”, as is the academic consensus. In the 21st century, some scholars have proposed the different view of “Three trends in faith stratification (Sanhua, 三化)”, namely urbanization, rejuvenation, and elitism. However, these claims are either based on theoretical analysis or local cases and data analysis. Based on the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data from 2010 to 2017, this study constructed a comprehensive explanatory framework with macroscopic, mesoscopic, and microcosmic levels to verify the authenticity of the two sets of propositions by taking religion as a whole and also examining some representative religions such as Buddhism, Protestantism and folk religion. The results show that they are partially invalid, and thus, need to be further refined to be explained; the distribution of believer groups varies among religions and between urban/rural areas.