Author(s)

Zihan Wu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University, Xicheng District, Beijing, China

Corresponding Author

Zihan Wu

ABSTRACT

Current data reveals that Chinese young people's interest in temples has gradually grown in recent years. The popularity of Yonghe Gong Temple has continued to grow, whereas the Guozijian, once regarded as the traditional "the highest imperial educational institution", has gradually faded from public attention. This paper investigates the cultural phenomenon of the youth "incense offering" in China using Yonghe Gong Temple and the Guozijian in Beijing as case examples. Based on methods including textual analysis in religious studies, fieldwork in cultural anthropology, and sociological statistical analysis, this paper analyzes the forms, cultural construction, and underlying motivations forces of this phenomenon from the perspective of religious studies, and offers an interpretive framework for understanding the contemporary "revival" of traditional beliefs among young people.

KEYWORDS

Yonghe Gong Temple; Guozijian; Incense Offering; Traditional Belief; China's Youth

CITE THIS PAPER

Zihan Wu. The Contemporary Revival of Traditional Belief: A Comparative Study of Yonghe Gong Temple and the Guozijian in China's Youth "Incense Offering". Journal of Sociology and Ethnology (2026). Vol. 8, No.2, 30-36. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/jsoce.2026.080205.

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