Since China joined the UNESCO intangible heritage convention in 2004, private shamanism—centered on the belief in connecting heaven and earth—has been legally incorporated into the national heritage management system as regulated public heritage, provided it avoids religious attributes. Fieldwork and historical analysis show a new symbiotic relationship between public heritage and private belief in Northeast Chinese shamanism. This takes two forms: the emergence of public heritage from private practices, and the expansion of private belief's existence through public heritage support. This bidirectional model challenges the idea that heritagization weakens faith, offering a new framework for understanding ritual systems today.
In northern China, shamanic practices have developed an indigenous concept called 'virtual illness' to address mental distress arising from modern individuation. Prolonged mental distress is understood as leading to possession by external malevolent spirits, constituting a form of virtual illness. Healing involves attributing misfortune—including failure and mental illness—to the possessed spiritual identity, conducting spiritual healing on that identity, and encouraging individuals to maintain a positive, forward-looking state. This approach builds a psychological foundation for coping with mental illness and offers a unique response to the individualized self. These cultural healing practices adapt to the modern Chinese medical system and provide a targeted perspective for understanding mental illness in China's individuation process, prompting philosophical reflection on the concept of the self.