Muslim Chinese - the Hui in rural Ningxia : internal migration and ethnoreligious identification / Xiaoming Wang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wang, Xiaoming (Ethnologist), author.

Series:

Islamkundliche Untersuchungen ; 0939-1940 Bd. 340.

Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, 0939-1940 ; Band 340

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hui (Chinese people)--China--Ningxia Xian.

Hui (Chinese people).

Migration, Internal--China--Ningxia Xian.

Migration, Internal.

Muslims--China--Ningxia Xian.

Muslims.

Ningxia Xian (China)--Ethnic relations.

Ningxia Xian (China).

Ethnic relations.

China--Ningxia Xian.

Physical Description:

221 pages : illustrations (some color), map ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berlin : Klaus Schwarz Verlag, [2019]

Summary:

The Hui are predominantly Muslim Chinese who claim ancestry from Persian- and Arabic-speaking regions in Central Asia and the Middle East. According to the 2010 census, the Hui are the largest Muslim group in China and its third largest ethnic minority with a total population of 10.6 million. Due to their extensive geographic distribution and long-term acculturation by the atheist Han majority, the question of Hui identity is rarely raised in humanities and social sciences both in China and abroad.0This book examines Hui identity in the rural area of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, while taking account of China?s rapid modernisation and industrialisation in the twenty-first century. Specifically, it focuses on the massive internal migration of rural populations, which has been playing an essential role in the socioeconomic life of Chinese peasants in the past few decades.0Based on field data collected between 2011 and 2013 among the Jahriyya Hui, the study seeks to clarify the impacts of migration on the Hui?s ethnoreligious identity by investigating three key issues: the Hui?s purity concept, fasting and their belief in the afterworld. In relation to these reference points, religious rituals, including commemoration ceremonies and the Ramadan fast as well as their changing forms and values, are illustrated and analysed.0The thesis shows that Islam continues to play a crucial part in drawing boundaries and maintaining identity for the Hui both before and after migration. However, population movements in Ningxia are resulting in increased interactions between Hui and Han populations as well as between Hui from diverse ?menhuan? (Sufi paths). Consequently, the Hui?s unique ?menhuan? awareness is being weakened and their purity concept subjected to many queries, doubts, ambiguities, and tensions.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Introduction

Identity and migration of the Hui : background

Current state of research

Aim and focus of the study

Fieldwork

Outline of the book

Who are the Hui : a historical review

From newcomers to locals

Tang dynasty (618-907) : arrival and first migration waves

Song dynasty (960-1279) : gaining economic and social strength

Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) : improvement of status

Ming dynasty (1368-1644) : formation of the Hui population

Qing dynasty (1644-1911) : struggles for existence

Republic of China (1912-1949) : integration and indigenisation

People's Republic of China (1949-) : Hui as a shaoshu minzu

The Jahriyya : "the order of bloody necks"

Sufism's entry into China and the formation of menhuan

Jahriyya Muslims : hagiography and present situation

Religious structure and organisation

Ecological and labour migration in rural Ningxia

China's internal migration : an overview

Ecological migration in Ningxia

Labour migration : an example from Qingtongxia

Hui vis-à-vis Han at their new homes

Qingzhen and its changing values

Religious purity and pollution in general

Qingzhen on the local level

Pork issue

Gender differences

Qingzhen and its dilemmas

Fasting and Ramadan in an immigration area

Ramadan fasting

Authorised Islamic traditions

Local practices of the Jahriyya peasants in Ningxia

Voluntary fasting

Brief summary

Perspectives on death and the afterlife

Ermaili and its socioreligious meanings to migrants

The performance of ermaili

Social functions of commemoration rituals

Migration and its impact on ermaili rituals

Gongbei : the centres of spiritual power

The tending of family tombs

Social and religious position of migrant women

Conclusions

Glossary

Bibliography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 206-221).

ISBN:

9783879974931

3879974934

OCLC:

1099440944

Publisher Number:

9783879974931