The temple on the street.
A committee of local men manages the god's money, hires the opera troupe, organises the procession and decides who carries what. This is the real unit of Chinese popular religion, and it does not sort neatly — the same committee will engage Taoist priests, Buddhist monks and a spirit medium for different jobs without any sense of inconsistency.
The functioning unit of Chinese popular religion is the neighbourhood or village temple with a defined territory, run by a committee of local men who control the finances, organise the annual festival, hire performers and clergy, and adjudicate the many small questions of precedence that arise. Membership is by residence. What is important analytically is that this institution is not denominational: the same committee will engage Taoist priests for a jiao, Buddhist monks for a merit ritual, a fengshui master for the building and a spirit medium for consultations, without any sense that these are competing systems. Chinese religion at street level is a repertoire rather than a set of exclusive affiliations, and asking a worshipper whether they are Taoist or Buddhist frequently produces puzzlement rather than an answer. This is also why estimates of the number of Taoists worldwide vary by an order of magnitude depending on whether the counter uses self-identification or participation.
The same ground, other faiths
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