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According to official religious policies in China, the activities surrounding popular religious temples such as temple festivals are considered superstitions to be eradicated. However, during the reform period in the past thirty years, local temple leaders in many rural areas have been engaging in the politics of legitimation to protect and expand their communities’ temples and related activities. At the same time, the de-centralisation of political power in China has resulted in wide-spread rent-seeking practices among local state agencies. The convergence of these two interests, from the rural communities on the one hand and from the local state agencies on the other, has produced a “channeling zone” of benefits flowing in opposite directions and that cover a wide range of sectors (e.g. heritage protection, commerce, education, forestry, tourism, etc.), resulting in the consolidation of legitimacy for popular religious activities. This article presents the case study of a rural temple, the Black Dragon King Temple, in Shaanbei (northern Shaanxi Province), which exemplifies the intricate processes and mechanisms of such a politics of legitimation. The ethnographic highlight is a “plaque-hanging ceremony” that took place during the annual temple festival that marked the transition in status of the temple from superstition to officially-recognised religion.

La channeling zone : religion populaire, État local et rites de légitimation en Chine rurale à l’ère de la réforme