Digital Transformation of Religious Culture in China under Conditions of Mediatization and Platformization

The article analyzes the digital transformation of religious culture in China under conditions of mediatization, platformization, and algorithmization of social communication. Religious practices are examined not merely as objects of technological change, but as a dynamic cultural system that adapts traditional forms of sacred experience to the logic of the digital environment. Particular attention is paid to the specificity of the Chinese context, in which the digitalization of religion unfolds through the interaction of Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, folk beliefs, and state regulation. The theoretical and methodological framework of the study is based on the concepts of the mediatization of religion, post-secularity, cultural memory, and algorithmic culture. Drawing on the works of Chinese scholars (Liu Lingyu, Yang Fenggang, Zhang Xiaonan, Han Xiaocun), as well as an analysis of digital religious practices and platform-based forms of representing the sacred, the article demonstrates that China’s digital religious culture has a syncretic and integrative character. It is argued that digital technologies do not lead to the erosion of religious tradition, but rather function as a mechanism for its actualization, cultural adaptation, and reproduction within a mediatized society. The scientific novelty of the study lies in a cultural analysis of digital religiosity in China as a form of civilizational adaptation and a continuation of the historical model of Chinese religious syncretism, as well as in the introduction and conceptualization of the notion of “digital syncretism” as a defining feature of contemporary religious media culture.