Quantifying the Number of Hidden Han Buddhists in Contemporary China

Bibliographic Data

ID21235653
AuthorsAmpere A Tseng (0000-0003-4765-9665, Manufacturing Institute, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume8
Issue1
Pages92-110
Publication date2020-12-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReview of Religion and Chinese Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2214-3955 • E-ISSN: 2214-3947
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/22143955-20200003
OpenAlexW3116704621
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited9

This article addresses the problem of quantifying Han Buddhists who do not self-identify as Buddhists when responding to survey questions about religious belief and thus remain “hidden Buddhists.” Drawing on the results of various religious surveys and field observations, as well as taking into account the nonexclusive feature of Han Buddhists, the article develops a formula to quantify the hidden Han Buddhists. Data from one national survey and one regional survey are used to tune the parameters of the formula, while additional data from five religious surveys using different schemes are employed to establish the reliability and applicability of the formula. Compared to the five sets of survey data on hidden Han Buddhists, the results predicted by the formula range from less than 1% to 21% lower. This range of disagreement is considered adequate and reliable, given the uncertainty inherent in estimating religious phenomena in a spiritual world. Furthermore, the comparison also reveals that the number of hidden Buddhists may be much higher than that of self-identified Buddhists

China · Political science · Chinese history and philosophy · Engineering · Law · Religion and Society Interactions · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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