Navigating Sacred Soundscape in the Post-Secular Age: A Critical Analysis of the (Re)Production and Consumption of Digital Non-Traditional Religious Music Among Chinese Youth
Religions February 13, 2026 Wenwei Long
Many Chinese youth who lack formal religious beliefs engage with digital non-traditional religious music, such as electronic adaptations of the Great Compassion Mantra chant on platforms like Bilibili. Based on 15 interviews and one year of digital ethnography, the research shows that music, technology, environment, and cultural context shape youth's affective states of tranquility, trance, and transcendence. The study identifies fluid, contingent associations between these mediators and emergent, ambient affective states. It reveals hybridized practices that blend alternative spiritual elements with secular experiences, highlighting context-specific ways Chinese youth navigate spirituality in a post-secular age.