Christianity in East and Southeast Asia

East and Southeast Asia are two of the most religiously diverse regions in the world, with Buddhists (22%), agnostics (22%), Chinese folk-religionists (20%), Christians (12%), and Muslims (12%), representing the largest groups in the region (2020). Christianity has been on a gradual increase since 1970, taking into account also underground movements due to persecutions and political pressures both historical and current. However, religious and specifically, Christian, experience varies across the region—Asia being the most religiously diverse continent in the world—and the definition of religion blurs, in contrast with some Western perspectives, with cultural expressions and applications to Asian identity especially considering the relative predominance of Buddhist, Muslim, Confucian, and folk religionist populations. The future of Christianity in East and Southeast Asia figures to depend on geopolitical dynamics, as well as postcolonial considerations in prescriptions of women’s roles, religious freedoms, and social mores, in general.