The ancient Chinese religion was subject to persecution in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Many ancient temples were destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Rebellion in the late 1800s.
After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 "most temples were turned to other uses or were destroyed, with a few changed into schools".
During the Japanese invasion of China between 1937 and 1945 many temples were used as barracks by soldiers and destroyed in warfare.

In the past, popular cults were regulated by imperial government policies, promoting certain deities while suppressing other ones.
In the 20th century, with the decline of the empire, increasing urbanisation and Western influence, the issue for the new intellectual class was no longer controlling unauthorised worship of unregistered gods, but became the delegitimisation of the ancient Chinese religion as a superstitious obstacle to modernisation.

In 1904, a government regulation of the late empire approved for schools to be built through the confiscation of temple property.
Various "anti-superstition" campaigns followed.
The Kuomingtang government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) intensified the suppression of the ancient Chinese religion with the 1928 "Standards for retaining or abolishing gods and shrines"; the policy abolished all cults of gods with the exception of human heroes such as Yu the Great, Guan Yu and Confucius.

These policies were the background of those that were implemented in communist China after the Chinese Civil War between the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the democratic Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1949.
The Cultural Revolution, between 1966 and 1976 of the Chairman Mao period in the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC), was the last systematic effort to destroy the ancient Chinese religion, while in Taiwan the ancient Chinese religion was both preserved and promoted by Republic of China (Taiwan) president Chiang Kai-Shek during his Chinese Cultural Renaissance to counter the Cultural Revolution.

After 1978 the ancient Chinese religion started to rapidly revive in China, with millions of temples being rebuilt or built from scratch.
Since the 1980s the central government moved to a policy of benign neglect or wu wei (無為) in regard to rural community life, and the local government's new regulatory relationship with local society is characterized by practical mutual dependence; these factors have given much space for popular religion to develop.
In recent years, in some cases, local governments have taken an even positive and supportive attitude towards indigenous religion in the name of promoting cultural heritage.

Instead of signaling the demise of traditional ancient religion, China and Taiwan’s economic and technological industrialization and development has brought a spiritual renewal.
As its images and practices integrate the codes of the ancient Chinese culture, the ancient Chinese religion provides the Han Chinese people in both China and Taiwan a means to face the challenges of modernisation.
The ancient Chinese religion was subject to persecution in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many ancient temples were destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Rebellion in the late 1800s. After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 "most temples were turned to other uses or were destroyed, with a few changed into schools". During the Japanese invasion of China between 1937 and 1945 many temples were used as barracks by soldiers and destroyed in warfare.
In the past, popular cults were regulated by imperial government policies, promoting certain deities while suppressing other ones. In the 20th century, with the decline of the empire, increasing urbanisation and Western influence, the issue for the new intellectual class was no longer controlling unauthorised worship of unregistered gods, but became the delegitimisation of the ancient Chinese religion as a superstitious obstacle to modernisation.
In 1904, a government regulation of the late empire approved for schools to be built through the confiscation of temple property. Various "anti-superstition" campaigns followed. The Kuomingtang government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) intensified the suppression of the ancient Chinese religion with the 1928 "Standards for retaining or abolishing gods and shrines"; the policy abolished all cults of gods with the exception of human heroes such as Yu the Great, Guan Yu and Confucius.
These policies were the background of those that were implemented in communist China after the Chinese Civil War between the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the democratic Republic of China (Taiwan) in 1949. The Cultural Revolution, between 1966 and 1976 of the Chairman Mao period in the communist People’s Republic of China (PRC), was the last systematic effort to destroy the ancient Chinese religion, while in Taiwan the ancient Chinese religion was both preserved and promoted by Republic of China (Taiwan) president Chiang Kai-Shek during his Chinese Cultural Renaissance to counter the Cultural Revolution.
After 1978 the ancient Chinese religion started to rapidly revive in China, with millions of temples being rebuilt or built from scratch. Since the 1980s the central government moved to a policy of benign neglect or wu wei (無為) in regard to rural community life, and the local government's new regulatory relationship with local society is characterized by practical mutual dependence; these factors have given much space for popular religion to develop. In recent years, in some cases, local governments have taken an even positive and supportive attitude towards indigenous religion in the name of promoting cultural heritage.
Instead of signaling the demise of traditional ancient religion, China and Taiwan’s economic and technological industrialization and development has brought a spiritual renewal. As its images and practices integrate the codes of the ancient Chinese culture, the ancient Chinese religion provides the Han Chinese people in both China and Taiwan a means to face the challenges of modernisation.
Chinese folk religion