Episode 44: Religion, superstition, and the party 1949-1965

In this episode we go over the CCP's attitudes towards religion during the first 15 years of the PRC to 1965. These developments are important for understand why anti-religious sentiment reached such a fever-pitch during the Cultural Revolution, as well as why there has been a resurgence in interest in religion since the country's opening up in the 1980s.We discuss the five officially recognised religions - Daoism, Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism - as well as Confucianism, and the local folk religions that were all thrown under the umbrella of 'superstition'. We start by examining the origins of the the anti-religious mood of 20th century China, which actually began as early as the late Qing dynasty. We then discuss the secularisation of China, and the institutionalisation of religions that made them easier to oversee and control. There is a sudden change in audio around 15 minutes in because I had to change recording locations. Hopefully it's not too distracting, I tried to get the volumes to be the same!TimestampsIntro 0:00Religion in Republican China 3:30Marxism and Religion 9:08CCP Religious Policy - Confucianism 10:45Daoism 15:07Christianity 18:12Buddhism 29:10Islam 37:20Folk Religion 42:15Religious Resurgence post-Mao 45:56Support the showSign up for Buzzsprout to launch your podcasting journey: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=162442Subscribe to the Sinobabble Newsletter: https://sinobabble.substack.com/Support Sinobabble on Buy me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Sinobabblepod