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It’s New Year’s Eve for around one fifth of the world’s population. Chinese people are preparing to welcome in the Year of the Monkey with colourful fireworks, parades and gatherings. It’s a time for families to re-unite and to feast. But an important part of the festival involves venerating ancestors and talking to the dead.  So, is it a cultural tradition, or a religious one? 

Mary Stallard discusses the growing importance of religions in contemporary Chinese society, from folk traditions to formal belief systems.  Only five formal religions have official approval in China: Buddhism, Daoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam. But outside the compliant churches and temples, there are many millions of people practising their faith in secret, and in contravention of government policy. Official figures are impossible to obtain, but all the evidence suggests numbers of Christians, for example, are growing year on year.  One thing is certain: while Chairman Mao may have wished to stamp out religion from Chinese society, it is now back – if it ever went away.