Religion in China

China is not particularly religious in a theistic sense. Out of the 1.3 billion Chinese, Taoism is often cited as the nation’s predominant religion. Taoism can reasonably be construed as a philosophy of life, rather than a theistic religion. Of course, a desire to worship has been present in Chinese for thousands of years. The building of the Terracota Warriors by Emperor Qin points to a belief in an afterlife. Thus, “ancestor worship,” or familial worship, is also considered to be China’s predominant religion. I often wondered that, with an essentially athiestic worldview, do the Chinese I have met seek spiritual fulfillment in technology, or nationalism?

While freedom of religion is officially protected in the Chinese Constitution (along with freedom of speech, trial by jury, and a democratic government), in practice, it is different for non-indigeneous religions. The Falun Gong, for example, variously described as a cult or an oppressed religion, is a good example. When speaking with one of our professors, he explained the government considered Falun Gong a cult–indoctrinating their members, urging them to kill or commit suicide, not unlike the Branch Davidians. However, he noted that the other view–that they were a religious minority–could also be true, and confessed that he did not know which was the truth. This was surprising to me–coming early in the semester, I had yet to appreciate how the Chinese government obscures the truth.

He continued to explain that regardless of what Falun Gong actually was, he believed that the government felt threatened by the group in some way. The group probably possessed the capacity to mobilize a large group of people, posing a direct threat to government control. Although he covered himself, explaining that historically, insurgent groups would often use religion as a cover to move against the government, it was still a clear statement.

To me, it was a direct slap in the face for liberty and freedom of religion. The government wasn’t afraid of religiosity, but of the power of religion to mobilize the people? That is exactly the point! I thought. The government should be afraid of religion; if religion is afraid of the government, that, in my opinion, is the beginning of tyranny. This is why the First Amendment exists, and one of the principle reasons America as a land and nation was settled. The case of Tibet only serves to strengthen my opinion here.

Regarding Christianity, approximately three percent of the population is said to be Christian. The first missionaries arrived in the mid 600s, and the violence against outsiders–in particular Christian missionaries–was one of the triggering events of the Sino-Western conflicts in the 19th century. Today, churches exist–there was one about a mile from Peking University–if they are registered with the government as an official Christian church. I heard stories of locals being arrested for worshiping in a non-approved location, such as at a person’s home, but from what I understand, this is rare.

In Xi’an, with my family, I had a chance to visit a local worship service. Held in a building more resembling a mess hall at summer camp, in a dirty back alley, with no signs, sat hundreds and hundreds of Chinese, each with a Chinese-language copy of the bible. A female preacher explicated on what I presume to be the bible verse in question, while a western-style choir sang to almost familiar sounding tunes. What I thought was neat was just how enthusiastic these people were. After the service, the hundreds filed out–to be immediately replaced by the next worship service, and we did not attend the first service of the day. It was impressive, and serves as a counterpoint to my more dire predictions about China above.