Chinese folk religionChinese folk religion, also known as Chinese popular religion, comprehends a range of traditional religious practices of Han Chinese, including the Chinese diaspora. Vivienne Wee described it as "an empty bowl, which can variously be filled with the contents of institutionalised religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese syncretic religions”. This includes the veneration of shen (spirits) and ancestors, exorcism of demonic forces, and a belief in the rational order of nature, balance in the universe and reality that can be influenced by human beings and their rulers, as well as spirits and deities.
ZhoushanZhoushan , formerly romanized as Chusan, is an urbanized archipelago with the administrative status of a prefecture-level city in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. It consists of an archipelago of islands at the southern mouth of Hangzhou Bay, off Ningbo. The prefecture's city proper is Dinghai on Zhoushan Island, now administered as the prefecture's Dinghai District. During the 2020 census, Zhoushan Prefecture's population was 1,157,817, out of whom 882,932 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of two urban districts of Dinghai and Putuo.
Achang peopleThe Achang (), also known as the Ngac'ang (their own name) is an ethnic group.They are one of Tibeto-Burman languages speaking people. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also live in Myanmar, where they're known as Maingtha (မိုင်းသာလူမျိုး) in Shan State and Ngochang in Kachin State. The Achang number 27,700, of whom 27,600 are from Yunnan province, mainly in Lianghe County of Dehong Autonomous Prefecture.
Falun GongFalun Gong (UKpronˌfɑːlʊn_ˈɡɒŋ,ˌfæl-,-_ˈɡʊŋ, US-_ˈɡɔːŋ) or Falun Dafa (ˈdɑːfə; Dharma Wheel Practice) is a new religious movement. Falun Gong was founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a compound in Deerpark, New York, United States, near the residence of Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong emerged toward the end of China's "qigong boom"—a period that saw a proliferation of similar practices of meditation, slow-moving energy exercises and regulated breathing.
Christianity in ChinaChristianity in China has been present since the early medieval period and it has gained a significant amount of influence during the last 200 years. The Syro-Persian Church of the East (frequently mischaracterized as Nestorianism) appeared in China in the 7th century, during the Tang dynasty. Catholicism was one of the religions patronized by the emperors of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, but it did not take root in China until it was reintroduced by Jesuit missionaries in the 16th century.
Chinese salvationist religionsChinese salvationist religions or Chinese folk religious sects are a Chinese religious tradition characterised by a concern for salvation (moral fulfillment) of the person and the society. They are distinguished by egalitarianism, a founding charismatic person often informed by a divine revelation, a specific theology written in holy texts, a millenarian eschatology and a voluntary path of salvation, an embodied experience of the numinous through healing and self-cultivation, and an expansive orientation through evangelism and philanthropy.
Chinese New YearChinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. In Chinese, the festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival () as the spring season in the lunisolar calendar traditionally starts with lichun, the first of the twenty-four solar terms which the festival celebrates around the time of the Chinese New Year. Marking the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season, observances traditionally take place from Chinese New Year's Eve, the evening preceding the first day of the year, to the Lantern Festival, held on the 15th day of the year.
Islam in ChinaIslam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE. Muslims are a minority group in China, representing 1 to 1.5 percent of the total population (20 million people) according to various estimates. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerous group, the greatest concentration of Muslims are in Xinjiang, which contains a significant Uyghur population. Lesser yet significant populations reside in the regions of Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai. Of China's 55 officially recognized minority peoples, ten of these groups are predominantly Sunni Muslim.
SinicizationSinicization, sinofication, sinification, or sinonization (from the prefix Sino-, 'Chinese, relating to China') is the process by which non-Chinese societies or groups are acculturated or assimilated into Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, culture, and ethnic identity of the Han Chinese—the largest ethnic group of China. Areas of influence include diet, writing, industry, education, language/lexicon, law, architectural style, politics, philosophy, religion, science and technology, value systems, and lifestyle.
Major religious groupsThe world's principal religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups, though this is not a uniform practice. This theory began in the 18th century with the goal of recognizing the relative levels of civility in different societies, but this practice has since fallen into disrepute in many contemporary cultures. Initially, Christians had a simple dichotomy of world beliefs: Christian civility versus foreign heresy or barbarity.
