Secularity and Urban Gentrification: A Spatial Analysis of Downtown Buddhist Temples in Shanghai.

This article examines the revival of Han Buddhist communities in Shanghai since 1978 amid state-driven urban gentrification, focusing on 120 temples and ethnographic research at Jing'an Temple and Jade Buddha Chan Temple. It identifies two main trends: a political and economic divide between downtown and suburban Buddhist spaces, and a "niche-switching" strategy by temples that balances attracting commuting visitors and maintaining temple-centric devotees. The study highlights how urban Buddhist temples have adapted to neighborhood displacement by extending social ties beyond geographic boundaries, developing volunteer networks, and engaging in temple economies within commercial districts. This temple-centric revival reflects both state policies promoting Buddhism as part of Chinese culture and the agency of temple leadership in navigating urban restructuring and religious practice.