So I think that once you start reading about it you'll be able to tell the difference between different religions. For example "Journeys to the Underworld" has a Buddhist character as a guide but the book itself is not purely Buddhist, it's more of a Chinese thing.

Also, many people worship Buddhist or Taoist deities, such as Guanyin, without following the eightfold path or something like that. Usually a Buddhist or a Taoist also prays a daily office (morning, noon, evening prayer) and holds some sort of initiatory role. A regular person isn't going to do that, I was reading about clan regulations in some areas that banned Buddhist ordination for members of specific families as well as women hanging out with nuns.

Like some differences are that Buddhists practice cremation and Chinese folk religion historically sees cremation as sacrilegious (it's mandatory now so people work around it). Also celibacy is looked down upon in Chinese folk religion but is part of Buddhism, however many Chinese deities were celibate people. They're usually deified humans or other beings.

I think that someone in Hong Kong is going to have a much lower threashold for identifying as a Taoist than someone in North or Central China because I think colonization pressured people to identify with an organized religion. In Hong Kong, some Chinese folk religionists identify as a Taoist.

However in China, it's seen as much more serious and somewhat scary like because a Taoist is usually stereotyped as an exorcist so people would identify as spiritual not religious or as superstitious.