The People’s Republic of China is an officially atheist state, yet the presence and nature of atheism in China is ambiguous and contested. A recent WIN-Gallup International survey (2017) suggests convinced atheism is prevalent (67%), whereas a fuller survey by Yang and colleagues (2016) suggests it is quite rare (15% or less). China has been labeled an orthopraxic society (Chau 2019) that does not emphasize belief or its absence, yet Chinese people often stress a need for some type of “belief” (信仰) to navigate and unify the nation amidst the social turbulence accompanying modernization and the shift to a market economy (Wang 2002; Ci 2014; Yan 2021).
These apparent contradictions raise several questions: What does it mean to be an atheist or agnostic in contemporary China? How do atheism and agnosticism in China differ from or align with their counterpart beliefs in other parts of the world? In what identities and worldviews are Chinese atheism and agnosticism embedded? In what (or whom) do Chinese atheists and agnostics find meaning and value? To what extent do people in China explicitly understand and use the concepts 无神论 (atheism) and 不可知论 (agnosticism), given that they are imported and that Chinese traditions do not emphasize a theistic god concept?
This article presents results addressing these questions from an interdisciplinary, mixed-method research program investigating the nature and varieties of nontheism across six diverse cultural contexts. We consider the implications of these findings for our understanding of atheism and agnosticism in general, as outlooks with cross-cultural and pluralistic dimensions, and for our understanding of meaning, value, and belief in twenty-first-century China.
Additionally, in connection with this year’s Presidential Theme, our presentation will highlight a particularly striking finding: Chinese nontheists were the only population in our six-nation study to rank “freedom” as their highest value when asked, “What are the most important things to you in finding meaning in this world and in your own life?” In this talk, we will draw on interview and survey data to explore how Chinese nontheists conceptualize freedom, its relationship to their nontheism, and what it reveals about life as a nonbeliever in an officially atheist state.
WIN/Gallup International. 2017. “Religion Prevails in the World.” Gallup International. Retrieved January 8, 2024 (https://www.gallup-international.bg/en/36009/religion-prevails-in-the-w…).
Chau, Adam Yuet. 2019. Religion in China: Ties That Bind. John Wiley & Sons.
Ci, Jiwei. 2014. Moral China in the Age of Reform. Cambridge University Press.
Wang, Xiaoying. 2002. “The Post-Communist Personality: The Spectre of China’s Capitalist Market Reforms.” The China Journal 47:1–17.
Yan, Yunxiang. 2021. “The Politics of Moral Crisis in Contemporary China.” The China Journal 85(1):96–120.
Yang, Fenggang. 2010. “Youth and Religion in Modern China: A Sketch of Social and Political Developments.” Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion 2010:147–161.
This paper presents findings from a multi-methodological study of atheism and agnosticism (which we collectively label as nontheism) in contemporary China, conducted as part of a broader international research program exploring nontheistic beliefs, identities, and moral perspectives. The results reveal that, unlike the naturalistic, anti-religious atheism common in the West, Chinese nontheism is characterized by high engagement with supernatural beliefs and low levels of anti-religious sentiment. While Chinese nontheists associate atheism with political orthodoxy, they do not favor particular nonreligious labels. In terms of moral outlooks, Chinese nontheists are not markedly different from the Chinese general population, exhibiting both relativist and conventionalist perspectives. These findings provide insight into the cross-cultural and pluralistic dimensions of atheism and agnosticism as well as the nature of meaning, value, and belief in twenty-first-century China.