Parsing the diverse array of religious communities within one of the world's largest cities, each with their own unique set of rituals, institutions, and markers, in order to find points of commonality, can be a herculean feat. However, this is exactly what the authors of Shanghai Sacred: The Religious Landscape of a Global City set out to do in their sociological overview of the practice of religion in China's most cosmopolitan city of Shanghai. This book examines the various ways that—amid the chaos and bustle of more than 24 million people—believers in Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions have carved out their own sacred spaces where they can perform their rituals in concert with others.

In the first chapter, the authors present a contemporary history of the five officially recognized religions in China (Buddhism, Daoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Islam), including how they survived Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), and were revived in its aftermath. The chapter also draws a contrast with “civil religion,” which sanctifies particular elements of the city's history or identity (e.g. the Communist revolution) and elevates certain sites or memorials to the level of civic sacredness. The chapter features several maps of both traditional religious places of worship and the sites of such “worship” throughout Shanghai.

The second chapter examines the temporal element of sacredness, demonstrating how religious sites can “accrue particular significance at certain times of the year,” particularly during key religious festivals (p. 44). Here, the authors discuss the significance of traditional religious festivals like the Tomb Sweeping Festival, Chinese New Year, Christmas, and Eid al-Adha, which follow either the lunar or Gregorian calendars, as well as modern phenomena like “Singles’ Day,” which was invented by the online shopping giant Alibaba in 2009 to encourage Chinese singles to buy gifts for themselves. This chapter also discusses the importance of the geographic locations of different religious landmarks in determining where different faith communities might be concentrated in the city, and where an outsider might catch a glimpse of religious rituals being carried out on festival days.

This leads into the third and fourth chapters, which respectively analyze the relevance of the physical structures of houses of worship in separating the sacred from the profane, and the homely characteristics of these holy places for the believers who worship there. Referred as “compounds,” these temples, churches, and mosques welcome their members to leave the busy streets of Shanghai and enter a holy place where they can find support from their faith and their communities. The authors argue that these “compounds” offer many of the same “functions played in the socialist period by the work unit,” which includes providing volunteer assistance to overcome challenges like illness or a death in the community, as well as organizing recreational activities (p. 109). Many of these places of worship also exhibit elements of a home such as kitchens, and they can similarly be used to host social gatherings. Conversely, in the case of many of China's unrecognized religions (Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Bahai), believers are often forced to gather in the homes of their fellow community members, as no official place of worship has been authorized, giving these homes a sacred character.

The fifth chapter applies the symbolism of Shanghai's waterways to show how the city's religions connect even the most disconnected of its residents. Here, the authors explore the community of Christian fishermen who were welcomed by the church despite being outcasts in the broader society; the Rainbow Witness Fellowship which has offered a fellowship to LGBT Christians in the city; and the growing movement of yoga practitioners, many of whom are unaware of the practice's Hindu origins. Shanghai's waterways not only provide linkages between religious societies and their members, they are also the symbol of life, as they provide water, transportation, and food to the city's residents. The authors explore this interesting perspective as they describe the Buddhist practice of animal release, in which followers contribute donations to pay for fish, seafood, and birds which they then release into the rivers and skies of Shanghai in a ritual ceremony.

The book's conclusion presents an interesting point on the increased connectivity of religious communities in Shanghai and throughout China due to the rapid expansion of social media communication through apps like WeChat. Not only does this app allow for believers to form new communities of practice, organize gatherings, or share information with one another, it also allows for religious institutions to solicit donations, upload photos for publicity, or proselytize. The authors conclude that Shanghai's religious landscape enables believers of different faiths to find a community with whom they can network and carry out rituals and pilgrimages.

While I do not dispute that the various religions make important social contributions to the lives of many Shanghai citizens, I believe the authors largely ignored the significant challenges faced by faith communities in China. The fact that many of the interviewees are referred to by pseudonyms demonstrates the fear of punishment by local authorities if their religious affiliations are discovered, and this is not sufficiently discussed in the book.

Shanghai Sacred offers a unique outsider's perspective of Chinese religious practice in a metropolitan setting and does an excellent job of illustrating the diversity of religions that permeate the fabric of China's largest city. It includes thought-provoking analysis of various aspects of Shanghai's places of worship, from their historic evolution to the symbolism of their “compounds,” and describes important rituals and festivals as they occur in the present day. However, the book is short of new conclusions or novel phenomena that can be applied to future studies of religion in China. This book would be a good starting point for an introductory course on the sociology of religion in China, but it may lack the kind of analysis that would be necessary to inform higher-level social science research.