Popularity of a concept does not necessarily indicate its analytical power, it may rather be symptomatic for a shift in scholarly discourse, often pointing to deeper-lying changes in academia and society at large. The talk will first look into the history of the term ‘post-traditionalism’ and by default also into that of ‘traditionalism’, then discuss possible reasons for its present popularity, finally attempt to apply it to Chinese intellectual history. The results will be critically evaluated and put into the context of related concepts such as ‘modernity’.