Is religion banned in China? Well I'm
standing outside a big church here in
the middle of mainland China so I pose to
you that it is in fact not banned. This is
a big misconception;
but of course religion is controlled and
I'll get into that in a short while.
Firstly I just wanted to say, you know, as
a bit of a disclaimer that I personally
am not a very religious person. I guess
you could say I was brought up Christian, I
mean celebrating Christmas and you know
all that kind of thing; you know, we had
Bibal studies in school and all that,
but I was never that kind of
church-going sort of Christian or
anything like that, and I've always been
fairly open-minded to all religions, all
over the world. And you know, I don't have
any particular favorites to be
honest. The thing is, when you talk about
religion, just like politics or sex, you
tend to, you know, get certain people
annoyed, so I usually leave politics and
religion out of my videos. But today
because people ask this question quite
often, you know, "Are there churches?"
"Is religion banned?", "Are they
harvesting the organs of anyone who
tries to practise any kind of religion
here?"
Well no, not really but the
organ harvesting thing is something that
happens to criminals in China, it does.
I don't know the particulars; I never
really read up on it; you can go look. I'm
sure there's tons of people who will
tell you lots about that. But that's not
what this video is about. This video is
basically for all of you guys out there
who are curious about religion in China.
Let me cut to the chase here. Most
religions are accepted in China, as you
can see by the fact that there's a big
church right behind me over here.
And China doesn't particularly have a
problem with religion per se, but what
they do have a problem with is mass
gatherings that can get out of hand. And
this is something that they keep a very
close eye on because you know there's a
big mob mentality here in China which I've
experienced myself personally. And when
you get a lot of people all in
one place, if they get too excited or
they kick up a fuss, you know, it can
spark off like this and you'll have like
massive sort of civil unrest. That's
the biggest problem they have with
religion, not the religion itself. It's
more about large amounts of people
gathering together and you know sort of
I guess plotting or whatever. So
the thing is, places like this, churches
like this are allowed to exist; you are
free to practise your religion here in
China but you can't proselytize—I think
is the word—where you go around
trying to convert people. That's not
allowed
and when I've signed contracts to do
work here in the past, it actually stipulated
in the contract: it says you may not
proselytize. So you're more than free to
come and you know practice your
Christianity here and go to Mass and all
that
however China does want to make sure
that you are teaching their version of
Christianity. They do kind of want to
censor a few things and change a few
things here and there and you know if
you live in China you understand that's
just how it is they censor the internet
you know they censor things like pornography
for instance it's completely
illegal here and so there's a bit of
give and take. but of course if you're a
hardcore christian you know you
understand your faith, you can practice it
pretty much however you want as
long as you're not going out there
trying to convert people. Now
Christianity as a whole anyway because
I've got some Christian friends here is
pretty much unregulated like it they
might kind of want you to have you know
certain things not preached you know
certain parts they don't want read out
of the bible and stuff but it's
Catholicism that is actually controlled
to a certain degree. For instance you're not
allowed to follow the Pope here so the
Pope's not allowed to appoint bishops in
China things like that. The Chinese
Catholic Church, whatever does that and
like I said I'm not into religion so I
can't give you specifics,
it's something you can very easily find
online. Right, I'd like to move on from
Christianity but before I do I'd just like
to point out that actually right now
China is the fastest growing Christian
nation on earth at the moment and I do
find that a lot of my Chinese friends
who are Christians they generally come
from Taiwan or you know like for
instance this church there are Korean
signs all over, so I'm guessing the local
Korean population probably has something
to do with this church being built and
they've kind of come in and introduced it
and you know i have seen little churches
here and there and you do see churches
all over China it's not like it's
completely banned but anyway let's move on
and talk about the actual sort of
religions that Chinese people follow. Now
from my own observations anyway
Chinese people are less religious and
more superstitious, it's more about
tradition. There are temples all over the
place
unfortunately as I pointed out in the
past a lot of the traditions and you
know that the actual feeling behind it
the whole culture behind it was
destroyed during the very badly named
cultural revolution for this kind of
appropriate anyway thing is a lot of it
was wiped out so although traditions
still remain, they're not really as
deep and vibrant and full as they used
to be
however you can actually still see these
traditions very clearly if you just pop
over to Hong Kong people there are
incredibly traditional and you know they
go to the temple every year and their
temples all over Hong Kong and of course
in Taiwan as well it's very easy to see
the sort of elaborate temples in a way
people follow their traditions
I mean I have a little story when i bought
a scooter there in Taiwan years ago and
I was busy repairing it, there was
actually a good luck charm
a little Buddhist good luck charm inside
the scooter that somebody put inside
underneath the bodywork you know to keep
themselves safe as they drive so the
tradition and the superstition is a huge
part of people's lives you know in
Taiwan, Hong Kong and of course you know
in mainland China too, to a certain degree
now, it's difficult to sort of pigeonhole
Chinese religion and tradition and
superstition but it's kind of a mix between
Confucianism Buddhism and ancestor
worship. so you know you'll meet
people in general I'd say most of
the people you meet in China are rather
atheist and they live their lives in a very
sort of agnostic sort of a way however
they will always you know have some sort
of traditional still believe in things
like fate and luck and lucky numbers and
you know things like this and of course
there's a lot of ancestor worship here
as well, there's a lot of respect for the
elderly and respect for you know your
ancestors, where you come from
so it is very interesting and it's one
of the biggest attractions for a lot of
people who come to China they look for
that I want to go see the temple they
want to see the monks they want to see
you know that kind of thing I mean and
it does exist but it's really not as
prevalent as you might think i was
actually quite shocked and I know a lot
of people are going to say that Shenzhen
is a new city and there's not a lot of
culture there but trust me they are old
part of Shenzhen but I was quite shocked
at the fact that I look around and
didn't see any temples, here i am in a
completely different city this is a
3rd-tier city I look around I don't see any
temples you know what I mean it's not as
prevalent as you may think there are of
course big famous temples all over China
and in the bigger cities you will
usually have one big temple that people
go to during new years Chinese New
Year's like you can see in the footage
here this was in Guangzhou you know
which is not far from where we are right
now and as you can see it's still
something very popular and it is very much
engrained in the Chinese mentality. I do
find that Chinese superstition and
tradition it do very much revolve around
the whole sort of luck and fortune
aspects and usually it's something like
go and pray at the temple so that you
can make money during the year we're
gonna pray the temple that you have good
health and good luck and your business
will be well it's usually something like
that. it's less of a sort of a
selfless religion like you'll find many
other religions around the world it's
more of a practical sort of religion
and superstition kind of setup now there
are still some rules here in China when
it comes to religion for instance if you
work for the Communist Party, if you work for
the government any i guess if you're a
postman or you're like a manager of I
don't know, the Vehicle Bureau anything
like that you're absolutely not allowed
to practice religion and you actually
have to sign a contract that says that you
won't and I guess they're probably
worried about people spreading their
religious
views around the office or maybe funneling
money out of work into their religion or
something so it's -- it's a big no no
so that's definitely something that is true
if you work in the government here you
are not allowed to practice religion as
for you as a foreigner coming to live and
work here in China or just visit there are
pretty much no restrictions like I said
the only thing you shouldn't do is go
around trying to spread the word of
Allah spread the word of Jesus spread
the word of Buddha or whatever it is that
you follow because you know that's when
you're going to start ruffling a few
feathers and people are going to start
you know say hey what the hell are you
doing here you're not go if you want to
practice your religion go elsewhere type
thing but it's very easy to find out
where your local christian churches or
there are mosques there are synagogues
everything you can think of they do
exist here in China just have to do a
little bit of research and you'll be
able to find what you're looking for so
guys I hope this has answered your
question as to what's going on as far as
religion in China. it definitely exists
it's not banned i can guarantee you that
but you know just don't push your limits
don't go out and try to convert the
masses because it's not gonna fly over
here in China, they're very very very very
happy with their own little sort of
traditional superstitious set up over here so
my advice to you would be come to China
be yourself enjoy your religion
don't push it on others, that's all. so guys
until next time you know the drill
as always, stay awesome.