Joseph B. Tamney is Professor Emeritus in the Sociology Department, Ball State University (USA). He received his B.S. and M.A. from Fordham University and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He was a member of the editorial Board for the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, editor of Sociology of Religion (1994-2000), and president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion (2003-4). His published works include: The Resilience of Christianity in the Modern World (State University of New York Press, 1992), American Society in the Buddhist Mirror (Garland 1992), The Struggle Over Singapore's Soul: Western Modernization and Asian Culture (Walter de Gruyter 1996), The Resilience of Conservative Religion (Cambridge University Press 2002), and, with Linda Hsueh-Ling Chiang, Modernization, Globalization, and Confucianism in Chinese Societies (Praeger 2002).

Yang Fenggang received his PhD degree in Sociology in religion from The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.in 1997, MA in Philosophy From Nankai, Tianjin in China in 1987, BA in politics and education from Hebei normal university, Shijiazhuang. He now is a professor in sociology of religion and the director of Certre on religion and Chinese society in Purdue university. He has wrote and edited several books and many referred articles in English and Chinese.

This collection of original, new studies about Mainland China,Hong Kong,Taiwan and Singapore and other overseas Chinese communities focuses on religious changes, and especially the role of the state and market in affecting religious developments in these societies. Information was gathered by participant observation and interviews primarily, and the analysis of documents secondarily. The topics covered are: the growing interest in the study of religion, the methods used by Christians to be able to coexist with a communist government, revival techniques being used by Buddhist monks, the strategies of Daoist priests and sect leaders to attract followers, the significance of mass-circulating morality books, and the ongoing debate about the significance and nature of Confucianism. The book will interest social scientists, religious specialists, journalists, and others who want to understand the changing nature of Chinese societies, and those interested in religious change in modernizing societies.