<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This article provides an overview of the major existing scholarship pertaining to childhood religion in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). More specifically, it examines lived childhood religion in a rural village in Gānsù province. This article challenges the commonly preconceived notion that children in the PRC do not regard religious belief as important and simply mirror the religious practices of their guardians. By utilising ethnographic data, I argue that children in the PRC are capable of constructing their own unique form of lived religion that is informed by, but crucially distinct from, the religious beliefs and practices of adults. The practices and beliefs of this lived religion can be extremely important to children and the evidence from fieldwork suggests that they tend to take both their practice and belief very seriously.</p></abstract>

This article provides an overview of the major existing scholarship pertaining to childhood religion in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). More specifically, it examines lived childhood religion in a rural village in Gānsù province. This article challenges the commonly preconceived notion that children in the PRC do not regard religious belief as important and simply mirror the religious practices of their guardians. By utilising ethnographic data, I argue that children in the PRC are capable of constructing their own unique form of lived religion that is informed by, but crucially distinct from, the religious beliefs and practices of adults. The practices and beliefs of this lived religion can be extremely important to children and the evidence from fieldwork suggests that they tend to take both their practice and belief very seriously.

Speaking to My Ancestors: An Ethnographic Study of Lived Childhood Religion in Rural Gansu

Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This article provides an overview of the major existing scholarship pertaining to childhood religion in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). More...

Speaking to My Ancestors: An Ethnographic Study of Lived Childhood Religion in Rural Gansu

Published Online: Sep 13, 2020

Page range: 177 - 206

Received: May 19, 2020

Accepted: Jul 15, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/vjeas-2020-0007

Keywords
childhood, children, China, lived religion, belief

© 2020 Joseph Chadwin, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Speaking to My Ancestors: An Ethnographic Study of Lived Childhood Religion in Rural Gansu

Published Online: Sep 13, 2020

Page range: 177 - 206

Received: May 19, 2020

Accepted: Jul 15, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/vjeas-2020-0007

Keywordschildhood, children, China, lived religion, belief

© 2020 Joseph Chadwin, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords
childhood, children, China, lived religion, belief