Where Spirits Still Speak: Chinese Mass Shamanism and the Unfinished Project of Modernity

Shamanism has gained growing popular attention in China despite the state's official secularism. Through analysis of literary works, documentaries, social media, and interviews, the paper shows how artistic representations aestheticize and simplify shamanism. It argues that Chinese mass shamanism is a cultural response to structural and affective predicaments of contemporary China, including instrumentalism in diffused religion, social atomization, and the erosion of 'the nearby'. The phenomenon is presented as a hybrid formation born of modernity's failure to achieve complete disenchantment, situating it within modernity's entanglement with occultism.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Although the Chinese state is officially secular, practices and beliefs often labeled as spiritual or religious have never disappeared from everyday life. In recent years, shamanism, frequently framed as distant, mysterious, and archaic, has attracted growing popular attention in China. Through an analysis of literary works, documentaries, social media discourse, and interview data, the paper first examines how artistic representations aestheticize and simplify shamanism. It then explores the social and cultural conditions underpinning the rise of Chinese mass shamanism, arguing that this phenomenon is a cultural response to contemporary China’s structural and affective predicaments, including the instrumentalism of diffused religion, social atomization, and the erosion of "the nearby". Finally, the paper situates Chinese mass shamanism within the broader framework of modernity’s entanglement with occultism, contending that it is a hybrid formation born of modernity’s failure to achieve complete disenchantment.