Drawing together decades of research, Steve Smith explores the survival and adaptation of folk beliefs in Mao's China in the face of seismic social change and growing political repression. Bringing an oftenneglected aspect of modern Chinese history to the fore, he shows how folk religion maintained a vital presence in everyday life. In myriad ways, through Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, spirit mediums and spirit healing, divination, geomancy, and the reform of traditional marriage and funeral rites, rituals, and beliefs provided resources for adaptation and resistance to the regime. Nevertheless the survival of folk religion must be set against the secularizing forces that the regime unleashed. This unique history gives readers a vivid sense of life under Mao Zedong as vibrant, contentious, and resilient – a far cry from stereotypes of a secular, regimented, and monochrome society.

‘A truly amazing book. There is nothing like it either in religious studies or in the field of Chinese history. Smith destroys the myth that China's communists indiscriminately put religion to the sledgehammer, showing instead how the twin forces of revolution and religion reshaped every element of life, from propaganda to pig breeding.'

Thomas David DuBois - author of Empire and the Meaning of Religion in Northeast Asia

‘Smith's monumental synthesis, along with its companion volume, tells a story that was crying to be told for three generations: how the Chinese never ceased to be Chinese during the Mao era. They were religious – living by values and rituals, within a society including much more than just living humans – before Mao, and they are still today. Now we read in gripping detail, told from the grassroots, how they continued to be so in spite of the best efforts of the Party.'

Vincent Goossaert - author of Making the Gods Speak

‘A dazzlingly rich account of folk belief in the People's Republic of China, which ranges virtuosically between comparative religion, social, cultural and political history, and granular archival detail. Populated by deities, diviners, spirit mediums, healers, ghosts and demons, this book will transform our view of Mao-era China and its relationship with the grassroots.'

Julia Lovell - author of Maoism: A Global History