Chinese Folk Religion extends far beyond the geographical boundaries of mainland China, carried and continually reshaped by Chinese communities across the world. It flourishes in places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, where dense temple networks, public festivals, and household rituals keep alive the veneration of deities and ancestors. In Taiwan especially, these traditions form a vivid and relatively uninterrupted continuum, with worship of figures such as Mazu, Tudigong, Guan Di, and various city gods, alongside regular ancestral rites. These practices demonstrate that the spiritual landscape associated with Chinese Folk Religion is not confined to a single nation-state, but lives wherever Chinese cultural memory has taken root.

Southeast Asia offers some of the most striking examples of this wider presence. In Malaysia and Singapore, Chinese temples and clan associations maintain worship of deities such as Mazu, Guanyin, Tua Pek Kong, and localized spirits like Datuk Gong. Similar patterns appear in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Myanmar, where Chinese temples stand as focal points for ritual life. In these regions, Chinese Folk Religion often intertwines with Taoist and Buddhist elements, as well as local religious currents, forming richly syncretic expressions that still retain recognizable features of the Chinese tradition.

Beyond Asia, Chinese Folk Religion has also taken root wherever Chinese diaspora communities have settled. In the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and various European and Latin American countries, Chinatowns and community associations maintain temples, ancestral halls, and home altars. Festivals such as Qingming and the Ghost Festival are observed in family and community settings, sustaining bonds with ancestors and deities even in distant cultural environments. These practices may be less visible in the public sphere, yet they continue to shape communal identity and everyday life.

In East Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan, Chinese communities likewise preserve aspects of Chinese Folk Religion, though often on a more limited scale and in close interaction with local traditions. Across all these regions, certain core elements remain remarkably consistent: veneration of ancestors, devotion to local and trans-regional deities, the burning of incense, divination, and the marking of the ritual calendar through festivals. At the same time, each locale subtly transforms the tradition, allowing it to adapt without losing its spiritual center. Chinese Folk Religion thus appears less as a fixed system and more as a living, migratory tapestry of practices that continually negotiates place, memory, and the unseen world.