Innovative state and local variations: governing religion in Greater Suzhou

The relationship between religion and governance in China is a topic of grave importance and yet scarce research. Based on long-term ethnographic research, this chapter explores diffusion and variation of innovative religious policies and local governance in the greater Suzhou area since the mid-1990s, especially in the context of reterritorialization and urbanization. In particular, it analyzes the local variations and implementations of the “Smashing Small and Building Big” policy and explicates how such policy allows the local state to exercise “religionization” and “checks and balances” in the governing of local religious groups and actors. This chapter argues that the reterritorialization of religious organizations due to urbanization has not only led to the standardization of gods but also the “standardization of governance” of religious groups under government bodies such as the RAB and official religious associations.