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How do Chinese Muslims have their own voices heard under China's tightening online censorship amid a global health crisis like COVID-19? Based on 13-month ethnographic fieldwork, this article examines the active participation and creative use of digital media by Chinese Muslims during the pandemic. This study uses multi-sited ethnography (MSE) and digital ethnography to identify major features of networked Islamic counterpublic in China. It shows how Chinese Muslims creatively blend Islamic discourses of hygiene, scientific discourse, official regulations, and global discourses of public health through digital media. It also examines how Chinese Muslims selectively use digital platforms to cultivate Islamic ethics and strengthening global connections to Muslim world both online and offline. Furthermore, this study shows how resilient the networked Islamic counterpublic in China has been in terms of strategically voicing dissent in the shadows of anti-Muslim sentiments and state policies during a major global pandemic of our time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Naqshbandiyya Mujaddidiyya order is among the world's largest and most geographically widespread Sufi orders, but it has long been assumed to be absent among Chinese-speaking Muslims. Despite a handful of isolated references to local Chinese Mujaddidī groups in studies of particular communities, comprehensive histories of Chinese Islams make no mention of the Mujaddidiyya, and histories of the Naqshbandiyya Mujaddidiyya make no reference to Chinese-speaking Muslims. This article demonstrates that the Mujaddidiyya order has not only been present at various times and places among Chinese Muslims, but has also played a role in the development of nearly all major strains of Islam in China proper, including those commonly known as the Gedimu, Jahriyya, Khāfiyya, Qādiriyya, and Ikhwān. The article also uses new primary sources to provide an account of how a Mujaddidī order expanded into Eastern Turkistan and was transmitted from there to Muslims in China proper. It shows that adaptation to local environments created distinctive forms of Mujaddidī Sufism, highlights Hui-Uyghur connections, and argues that South Asia deserves a central place in any account of Islam in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While modern family-related ideas and behaviors have become more widely accepted in contemporary China, Chinese Muslim minorities continue to hold on to traditional religious practices. Surprisingly, data from our survey conducted in Gansu province in China's northwestern borderlands reveal that Muslims of the Hui and Dongxiang ethnicities reported much higher rates of cohabitation experience than the secular majority Han. Based on follow-up qualitative interviews, we found the answer to lie in the interplay between the highly interventionist Chinese state and the robust cultural resilience of local Islamic communities. While the state maintains a high minimum legal age of marriage, the early marriage norm remains strong in Chinese Muslim communities, where religion constitutes an alternative and often more powerful source of legitimacy--at least in the private sphere of life. Using the 2000 census data, we further show that women in almost all 10 Muslim ethnic groups have higher percentages of underage births and premarital births than Han women, both nationally and in the northwest where most Chinese Muslims live. As the once-outlawed behavior of cohabitation became more socially acceptable during the reform and opening-up era, young Muslim Chinese often found themselves in "arranged cohabitations" as de facto marriages formed at younger-than-legal ages. In doing so, Chinese Muslim communities have reinvented the meaning of cohabitation. Rather than liberal intimate relationship based on individual autonomy, cohabitation has served as a coping strategy by which Islamic patriarchs circumvent the Chinese state's aggressive regulations aimed at "modernizing" the Muslim family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

دراسة ونشر مجموعة من التحف المعدنية الصينية ذات الكتابات الإسلامية محفوظة في مسجد نيوجيه ببكين [AR] تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى نشر وفحص ودراسة مجموعة لم تنشر من قبل لأربعة من التحف المعدنية الصينية ذات الكتابات الإسلامية والمحفوظة في مسجد نيوجيه، أقدم مسجد في بكين. تعود هذه الأواني إلى عصر أسرتي مينغ (1368-1644م) وتشينغ (1644-1912م) الحاكمة للصين، مؤرخة بخراطيش كتابية تحمل أسماء كل من الإمبراطور شواندا (1425-1435م) والامبراطور جياتشينغ (1796-1820 م) والامبراطور كانغشي (1661-1722) والامبراطور تشيان لونغ (1735-1796). تحاول هذه الدراسة شرح الأساليب الفنية والمواد الخام الخاصة بالمجموعة، وكذلك الزخارف التي اتسمت بالثراء والتنوع، كما تسعى الدراسة إلى استكشاف تاريخ المسلين الصينيين عبر فحص تلك المجموعة؛ إذ حوت إحدى التحف على نص صيني يشير إلى علاقة البلاط الصيني بالمجتمع المسلم المحلي في مدينة بكين؛ لذا فهذه التحف تعد وثائق مهمة تسجل مرحلة مهمة في تاريخ الإسلام في الصين خلال عصر أسرتي مينغ تشينغ. تسبب كلا من الطلب الخارجي والداخلي على هذا النوع من الفن الذي يحمل الكتابات العربية والصينية في انتشاره في الصين، وهو دليل لا يرقى إليه الشك على عظم التأثيرات الفنية المتبادلة بين الفنين الصيني الإسلامي، وإشارة تؤكد على أن الفن الإسلامي تجاوز الحدود حتى وصل إلى أقصى شرق آسيا.. [EN] This study aims to publish, examine and study a group of four Chinese Islamic metal artifacts preserved in Niujie Mosque, the oldest mosque in Beijing. These artifacts date back to the Ming (1368-1644 AD) and Qing (1644-1912 AD) dynasties. They are dated by cartouches bearing the names of Emperors Xuanda (1425-1435 AD), Jiaqing (1796-1820 AD), Kangxi (1661-1722 AD), and Qianlong (1735-1796 AD). This study attempts to explain the artistic methods and raw materials of the collection, as well as the decorations that were characterized by richness and diversity. The study also seeks to explore the history of Chinese worshipers through examining that group. One of the objects contained a Chinese text referring to the Chinese court’s relationship with the local Muslim community in the city of Beijing. Therefore, it is an important document that records an important stage in the history of Islam in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Both external and internal demand for this type of art that carries Arabic and Chinese writings caused its spread in China, which is indubitable evidence of the great mutual artistic influences between the Chinese and Islamic arts, and an indication that confirms that Islamic art crossed borders until it reached Far East Asia.

This article discusses a study and publication of a collection of Chinese metal artifacts with Islamic scripts that are preserved in the Beijing Niuje Mosque. The artifacts date back to the Ming and Qing dynasties and contain inscriptions in both Arabic and Chinese. The study aims to explore the artistic methods, raw materials, and decorations of the collection, as well as the history of Chinese Muslims. The artifacts provide important evidence of the mutual artistic influences between Chinese and Islamic arts, highlighting the spread of Islamic art to Far East Asia. [Extracted from the article]

The tomb of Sa'd ibn Abī Waqqās, a Companion of the Prophet Muhammad mythologized to have as having been buried in Canton, has attracted pilgrims from across China and beyond for the past three centuries. The repertoire on Abī Waqqās, an arriver from Mecca buried in Canton, is intriguing less for its factual veracity than the its manifold afterlives of the personage. This paper expands the scope of existing scholarship on Islam in China by directing attention to the previously unexamined textual corpus – stele inscriptions, imperial geographic surveys, mosque records, print periodicals, and recent unofficial historical surveys that date between from the fourteenth century and to the present. Transported between different mediums, Abī Waqqās as an ancestral figure has provided a powerful regenerative force for Chinese Muslims' historical consciousness that unfolds through a circular rather than linear time, and incorporates distant geographies without physical mobility. Moving beyond the textual realm, repetitions of the narrative materialized into a cemetery – a focal point that has mediated long-distance travels and donation networks; absorbed hybrid religious rituals ranging from ancestor worship grave rituals to dhikr practices; and capitalized on the Chinese state's rhetoric of silk roads diplomacy. By unearthing rediscoveries of a symbolic figure through tides of time, the article shows how a supposedly unscientific myth narrativized conceptions of dual homes, here and elsewhere, and further established a regional Islamic hub, or a "little Mecca" in coastal China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indonesia Chinese Muslim Association (Persatuan Islam Tionghoa Indonesia /PITI) is an organization that has a unique role and phenomenon in Indonesia. The PITI phenomenon is related to the integration and role of the Chinese ethnic group in the realm of Islam in Indonesia. As a religious organization, PITI aims to integrate Chinese groups in Indonesia on an internal religious and ethnic basis. It is due to the long and complex history of the role of ethnic Chinese in Indonesian society, which includes various religious beliefs and beliefs. This article discusses the revitalization of the Da'wah of Chinese Muslims by PITI. PITI is considered an embryo that reinforces the existence of ethnic Chinese in the social arena, especially in establishing relations with natives. PITI should be able to maximize this role to convey opinions and ideas through cadres and utilize existing resources. The author uses a qualitative model by prioritizing the paradigm of social preaching. The analysis in this article will be presented through the results of elaboration with Oberschall's resource mobilization theory, aiming to determine the aspect of resources in the succession of social movements (da’wah). This article has the results of a study that PITI must be a pioneer in alleviating the social disparities that reverberate around natives, Muslims, and Chinese. The effort can be made to optimize their resources to share fresh narratives through their various da'wah channels.

Following on from a previous contribution in this journal, the article gives three additional examples of lexis in the field of funeral terminology among Chinese Muslims (here from those collected from Chinese Muslims in the Malay Archipelago) as well as various considerations regarding the socio-linguistic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their long existence in Nusantara, the Chinese ethnic groups remain less represented or even misrepresented in the history of Indonesia, resulting in negative stereotypes and attitudes towards the community. Sejarah Nasional Indonesia (SNI) and history textbooks for schools and universities, for instance, do not provide adequate narratives about Chinese contributions to Indonesian politics and economy during the pre- and post-independence era. This study aims to critically analyse the representation of Chinese ethnicities in the modern history of Indonesia, more specifically, the SNI and history textbooks for Islamic schools and universities. The findings of the study suggest that there was an unwritten history of Chinese and Chinese Muslims, especially during the Sukarno and Suharto regimes, which then Abdurrahman Wahid began to include. The study recommends new narratives of Chinese Muslims in modern Indonesian history by proposing some notable scholars who extensively worked on the History of Islam in Java, to which Chinese Muslims had contributed. [Kendati sudah berada di Indonesia berabad-abad lamanya, etnis Tionghoa tidak banyak tercatat dalam narasi sejarah Indonesia. Misrepresentasi etnis Tionghoa di Nusantara bahkan menyebabkan adanya stereotip dan sikap negatif terhadap etnis tersebut. Sejarah Nasional Indonesia (SNI) dan buku teks sejarah di sekolah dan universitas, misalnya, tidak banyak menyebutkan kontribusi etnis Tionghoa secara politik maupun ekonomi selama masa pra dan pasca kemerdekaan. Studi ini merupakan analisis kritis terhadap representasi etnis Tionghoa dalam sejarah modern Indonesia, khususnya dalam Sejarah Nasional Indonesia (SNI) dan buku teks sejarah di sekolah dan kampus Islam. Temuan kajian menunjukkan adanya sejarah yang tidak tercatat tentang peran Muslim Tionghoa selama rezim Sukarno dan Suharto, yang kemudian mulai diubah oleh rezim Gus Dur. Studi ini merekomendasikan adanya penulisan ulang sejarah Muslim Tionghoa di Indonesia dengan mengintegrasikan temuan studi beberapa sarjana ternama yang banyak meneliti mengenai Islam di Jawa dan peran etnis Tionghoa di dalamnya.]

The Indonesia Chinese Muslim Association (Persatuan Islam Tionghoa Indonesia /PITI) is an organization that has a unique role and phenomenon in Indonesia. The PITI phenomenon is related to the integration and role of the Chinese ethnic group in the realm of Islam in Indonesia. As a religious organization, PITI aims to integrate Chinese groups in Indonesia on an internal religious and ethnic basis. It is due to the long and complex history of the role of ethnic Chinese in Indonesian society, which includes various religious beliefs and beliefs. This article discusses the revitalization of the Da'wah of Chinese Muslims by PITI. PITI is considered an embryo that reinforces the existence of ethnic Chinese in the social arena, especially in establishing relations with natives. PITI should be able to maximize this role to convey opinions and ideas through cadres and utilize existing resources. The author uses a qualitative model by prioritizing the paradigm of social preaching. The analysis in this article will be presented through the results of elaboration with Oberschall's resource mobilization theory, aiming to determine the aspect of resources in the succession of social movements (da’wah). This article has the results of a study that PITI must be a pioneer in alleviating the social disparities that reverberate around natives, Muslims, and Chinese. The effort can be made to optimize their resources to share fresh narratives through their various da'wah channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophies in the East and West have favored wisdom in their search for truths. The Chinese civilization has sought holistic wisdom in its long history of absorbing the Abrahamic faiths since the seventh century. This paper aims to investigate how the Abrahamic faiths have interacted with ancient Chinese culture. In particular, this paper will examine the earliest written records in Chinese of the Luminous Religion (or Jingjiao), the earliest Jews in Kaifeng, and the earliest Muslims in China. By analyzing their theology of creation with reference to the Holy Spirit and qi (wind/breath/pneuma), this paper attempts a constructive Chinese natural theology based on a sympathetic and critical assessment of Alister McGrath's natural theology but makes up for his spirit deficit. This paper argues that the holistic wisdom achieved in the early integration process of the Abrahamic faiths with the Chinese culture is closely intertwined with the Spirit and qi, which provides a fruitful ground to construct a Chinese natural theology. The contribution of this paper lies in its original research into the earliest written records of the three Abrahamic faiths in China from the perspective of the doctrine of creation and its relationship with the Spirit and qi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Despite their long existence in Nusantara, the Chinese ethnic groups remain less represented or even misrepresented in the history of Indonesia, resulting in negative stereotypes and attitudes towards the community. Sejarah Nasional Indonesia (SNI) and history textbooks for schools and universities, for instance, do not provide adequate narratives about Chinese contributions to Indonesian politics and economy during the pre- and post-independence era. This study aims to critically analyse the representation of Chinese ethnicities in the modern history of Indonesia, more specifically, the SNI and history textbooks for Islamic schools and universities. The findings of the study suggest that there was an unwritten history of Chinese and Chinese Muslims, especially during the Sukarno and Suharto regimes, which then Abdurrahman Wahid began to include. The study recommends new narratives of Chinese Muslims in modern Indonesian history by proposing some notable scholars who extensively worked on the History of Islam in Java, to which Chinese Muslims had contributed. [Kendati sudah berada di Indonesia berabad-abad, etnis Tionghoa tidak banyak tercatat dalam narasi sejarah Indonesia. Misrepresentasi etnis Tionghoa di Nusantara bahkan menyebabkan adanya stereotip dan sikap negatif terhadap etnis tersebut. Sejarah Nasional Indonesia (SNI) dan buku teks sejarah di sekolah dan universitas, misalnya, tidak banyak menyebutkan kontribusi etnis Tionghoa secara politik maupun ekonomi selama masa pra dan pasca kemerdekaan. Studi ini merupakan analisis kritis terhadap representasi etnis Tionghoa dalam sejarah modern Indonesia, khususnya dalam SNI dan buku teks sejarah di sekolah dan kampus Islam. Temuan kajian menunjukkan adanya sejarah tak tercatat tentang peran Muslim Tionghoa selama rezim Sukarno dan Suharto, yang kemudian mulai diubah oleh rezim Gus Dur. Studi ini merekomendasikan penulisan ulang sejarah Muslim Tionghoa di Indonesia dengan mengintegrasikan temuan beberapa sarjana yang meneliti mengenai Islam di Jawa dan peran etnis Tionghoa di dalamnya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the concept of 'archipelagic Islam' and the recent academic call for archipelagic thinking, this article proposes the term 'archipelagic Chineseness' to analyze various discourses and practices of Chineseness that take into account diverse national and local contexts, without disregarding various transnational connections. However, different from the proponents of 'archipelagic Islam' who promote an ideal type of Islamic identity in Indonesia, I use 'archipelagic Chineseness' mainly not to prescribe a kind of ideal Chinese identity, but instead to explore and theorize multiple ways of being or not being Chinese in Indonesia, Malaysia, and beyond. The concept points to the possibility of being Chinese in a way that is neither totally subscribed to China's growing influence, nor completely assimilated due to the demand of some nationalists. By examining the trends of Chinese-style mosques and Chinese Muslim preachers, I discuss how and under what conditions different Chinese and non-Chinese Muslims appropriate Chineseness for diverse reasons. While the Chinese-style mosques borrow the architectural design of ancient mosques in China, they adopt local cultural traditions and interact with local politics. Many Muslim leaders welcome such mosques as an initiative to promote localized Islam and to imagine a translocal Chinese Muslim identity. However, when it comes to preachers, there are contesting – if not conflicting – cultural and religious orientations, which are shaping and being shaped by the politics of race, religion and class in both countries. Thus, I propose 'archipelagic Chineseness' to analyze various entanglements of diverse transnational connections, national belongings and local sensibilities among ethnic Chinese in general and Chinese Muslims in particular. Archipelagic thinking around Chineseness also allows us to explore how ethnic Chinese in maritime Southeast Asia negotiate their Chineseness with their other identities, such as nationalities, localities, religion, and sexual identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophies in the East and West have favored wisdom in their search for truths. The Chinese civilization has sought holistic wisdom in its long history of absorbing the Abrahamic faiths since the seventh century. This paper aims to investigate how the Abrahamic faiths have interacted with ancient Chinese culture. In particular, this paper will examine the earliest written records in Chinese of the Luminous Religion (or Jingjiao), the earliest Jews in Kaifeng, and the earliest Muslims in China. By analyzing their theology of creation with reference to the Holy Spirit and qi (wind/breath/pneuma), this paper attempts a constructive Chinese natural theology based on a sympathetic and critical assessment of Alister McGrath’s natural theology but makes up for his spirit deficit. This paper argues that the holistic wisdom achieved in the early integration process of the Abrahamic faiths with the Chinese culture is closely intertwined with the Spirit and qi, which provides a fruitful ground to construct a Chinese natural theology. The contribution of this paper lies in its original research into the earliest written records of the three Abrahamic faiths in China from the perspective of the doctrine of creation and its relationship with the Spirit and qi.

This study examined the role and actions of the Chinese Muslim community in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, embodied through an organization called the Indonesian Chinese Islamic Association and the Haji Muhammad Cheng Hoo Indonesia Foundation. Through these two organizations, Chinese Muslims demonstrated anti-mainstream Islamic expressions. They did not so reveal the Islamic style, which entirely dominated rituals and ceremonials. Still, they articulated Islam through social movements to adapt and gain legitimacy from the local Muslims and attract non-Muslim Chinese sympathies on Islam. Based on a qualitative approach, this study found that by maintaining a cultural identity as Chinese, this community ensured that being a good Muslim was not in binary opposition to being authentic Chinese. The experience of the Chinese Muslim community in Surabaya determined that theology was not only a religious issue but also a social problem. Chinese Muslim social theology in Surabaya is an expression of cosmopolitan Islam and is successfully well-integrated with an inclusive Chinese identity. Social theology demonstrated two dimensions dialectically-integral, the harmonious fusion of Islamic inclusivism and active participation in overcoming various social problems

This article describes a new method of viewing a historical phenomenon based on its social significance. This method enabled the classification and analysis of a group in a context simultaneously and chronologically. Using historical phenomenology, the authors found a polarisation of Chinese Muslims’ thoughts and practices in the Indonesian context. As an example, the technique of classification of Islamic thoughts is illustrated to discover Chinese Muslim figures’ religious activities. This method allows an improved social investigation to probe deeply into Chinese Muslims’ formal religious life. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the new method is confirmed by the calculation of the polarisation of Chinese Muslim religiousness, leading to the fragmentation and diversification of Indonesian Chinese Muslims in the realms of politics, economic practices or Islamic rituals. New research results improve the understanding of how a social history of an ethnicity could grow and assimilate in a context. The assimilation could contribute to religious harmony in such a pluralistic country such as Indonesia and can be used for making better social decisions, especially related to the lives of minorities, who urgently need policymakers and stakeholders to accommodate the rights of those who are still in the process of gaining fairer recognition. Contribution: Using historical phenomenology, this article tries to classify and study a group in a setting concurrently and chronologically. An in-depth social inquiry into the formal religious life of Chinese Muslims discovered a calculation of religious Chinese Muslims’ polarisation, which led to the dispersion and diversification of Indonesian Chinese Muslims’ politics, economic practices and Islamic rituals. New policy proposals can be made by evaluating religious polarisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study discusses the numerous challenges that Chinese Muslims experience as a minority in Indonesia, as well as the role of Chinese Muslim groups in providing them with religious direction. This study employs a phenomenological approach that relies on in-depth interviews with 14 informants who were chosen purposively. According to the study, the obstacles faced are domestic constraints, where they are alienated by their extended family, and social constraints, particularly for those from disadvantaged groups. As a result of this situation, they became acquainted with several Chinese Muslim organisations. Although this phenomena demonstrates a constructive cooperation among Chinese Muslims, it also implies that assimilation efforts with local Muslims are not properly manifested. Contribution: Although the decision to convert to Islam has resulted in exclusion from their extended family, they are still able to maintain their new faith by relying on Islamic organisations run by fellow Chinese Muslims. At the same time, this phenomenon illustrates that their assimilation efforts with local Muslims have not been properly realised.

In Western discourse today the charge that Islam is "not just a religion" but a comprehensive social system is leveled to cast doubt over Muslims' ability to integrate into a political community. In the People's Republic of China, this understanding of Islam has served the opposite purpose. From the perspective of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), religion cannot be the basis for legitimate political identity. Islam, however, is not just a religion. Rather, as a "social system," Islam constitutes a legitimate basis for national identity, and the Hui (Huihui), or Chinese Muslims, therefore constitute a minority nationality. This essay explores the origins of the CCP's understanding of Islam in the 1930s and 1940s, when the Party first formulated its policy vis-à-vis the Hui. Glasserman shows how this understanding of Islam as "not just a religion" suited the political, geopolitical, and ideological circumstances of the Yan'an period (1936–48). He also shows how this understanding was informed by contemporary Hui discourse and activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to uncover how Chinese Muslims in Surabaya developed their identity in Post-Reformation. During the New Order regime, they could not show their identity as a part of Indonesian diversity. Chinese identity has merged with the “native” people. Along with the downfall of the authoritarian political system and the development of multiculturalism and pluralism, Chinese Muslims in Surabaya could express their cultural identity. This study uses a qualitative method with an ethnographic approach. The results of the study reveal that the Chinese Muslims in Surabaya developed their cultural identity through Cheng Hoo Mosque, Chinese Muslim Organization, and Imlek Celebration. The cultural identity created a hybrid identity which is a combination of Chinese, Java, and Islamic cultures.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is eliminating and replacing (Wolfe, Patrick. 2006. "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native." Journal of Genocide Research 8 (4): 387-409) indigenous expressions of Uyghurness. The Party-state has narrowed the official spaces in which Uyghur language can be used and tightened restrictions on religious practice while it has broadened the criminal category of "extremist." These policies attempt to hollow-out a Uyghur identity that is animated by Islamic and Central Asian norms and fill it with practices common to Han people. The CCP has thrust these tactics into private homes. Drawing on research in the region between 2010 and 2017, government documents, and colonial theory, this article introduces and interrogates the "Three News" housing campaign. It argues that by imposing what I call "authoritarian reflectiveness," the CCP intends to uproot Uyghur configurations of order and replace them with Han domestic sensibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents reflections on recent changes observed in China's relations with neighboring countries with which it has land territorial disputes, India and Bhutan. Subsequently, China's current attitude towards its maritime neighbors will be characterized. Thirdly, the current aggressive policies of the central government against Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the systematic policy of control of the Muslim minority in Xinjiang are related. The analysis highlights China's new diplomatic tools to deal with its national and regional security threats. The study concludes with projections on regional and international scenarios for Chinese power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a total number of 23 million Chinese Muslims, the Islamic banking service in China is still at its early stage of development. This study seeks to examine the factors that influence the Chinese Muslims’ intentions to adopt Islamic banking. Employing the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the present study investigates the effects of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and religious obligation on the intention to adopt Islamic banking services amongst the Chinese Muslims. The survey data used in the process of research was collected from 669 Muslim respondents across four major cities in the western regions of China. The hypothesized relationships are examined by using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results show that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control, and religious obligation significantly influence the intention to adopt Islamic banking among the Chinese Muslims.

While modern family-related ideas and behaviors have become more widely accepted in contemporary China, Chinese Muslim minorities continue to hold on to traditional religious practices. Surprisingly, data from our survey conducted in Gansu province in China's northwestern borderlands reveal that Muslims of the Hui and Dongxiang ethnicities reported much higher rates of cohabitation experience than the secular majority Han. Based on follow-up qualitative interviews, we found the answer to lie in the interplay between the highly interventionist Chinese state and the robust cultural resilience of local Islamic communities. While the state maintains a high minimum legal age of marriage, the early marriage norm remains strong in Chinese Muslim communities, where religion constitutes an alternative and often more powerful source of legitimacy-at least in the private sphere of life. Using the 2000 census data, we further show that women in almost all 10 Muslim ethnic groups have higher percentages of underage births and premarital births than Han women, both nationally and in the northwest where most Chinese Muslims live. As the once-outlawed behavior of cohabitation became more socially acceptable during the reform and opening-up era, young Muslim Chinese often found themselves in "arranged cohabitations" as de facto marriages formed at younger-than-legal ages. In doing so, Chinese Muslim communities have reinvented the meaning of cohabitation. Rather than liberal intimate relationship based on individual autonomy, cohabitation has served as a coping strategy by which Islamic patriarchs circumvent the Chinese state's aggressive regulations aimed at "modernizing" the Muslim family., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

The "Sinicization of religion" that is being implemented in China since 2016 has not only adversely affected the practice of Islam by Hui Muslims but it has also impacted upon the architecture and decoration of mosques where Hui communities live. This article argues that the politics of Sinicizing religious spaces is inherently problematic; it involves issues of what exactly constitutes "Sinicization", and assumptions behind the choices that Muslims make regarding mosque architecture and decoration. To illustrate the intricacies of the matter, this article compares two large mosques in Beijing. The Niujie mosque is an example of an old and traditional "Chinese" Muslim place of worship, and as such, may be classified as "Sinicized", and approved of by the Chinese state. In contrast, the large, modern Doudian mosque, with its "Arab" style tall minarets and bulbous domes might be considered alien to Chinese tastes, however, such suppositions gloss over its hybrid architectural and decorative features and the multiple reasons for choices made in its design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The |-|Uisheng mosque in Guangzhou is one of China's oldest mosques; its initial construction dates back to 627. The minaret of the mosque is one of the surviving earliest examples of Islamic architecture in China. The Chinese minarets were built with a form of a wooden low-rise Chinese pavilion. In the case of Guangta, it was built by brick directly on the street with such a great height. The unique architectural farm of Guangta raises many questions about its location, architecture, and function. The study traces the historical texts of the minaret to clarify its historical functions. It attempts to understand the minaret's meanings, the hidden symbolism, and its historical roles to serve the Muslim community as a religious minority in the city, on the one hand, as well as its cultural contributions on the other hand. There are several methods to achieve its objectives: the historical, the descriptive, and the comparative analytical approach. These approaches proved that the minaret played many roles associated with its farm and architecture. In addition to its religious functions, it is entrusted to inform Muslims at prayer times. The minaret was also used as a control tower if the Muslim community in the city was exposed to external or internal threats and served as a lighthouse to facilitate Muslim maritime trade. Further, it carried a religious symbolism as it was a symbol of Islam itself within the local Chinese society that was not ruled by Muslims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite China's sizeable Muslim population, the demand for halal personal care products by its Muslim population has not been examined and empirical research on Muslim needs in general is rather limited. Filling this gap, this study investigates Chinese Muslims' choices of halal personal care products using the choice modelling method. Experimental data from 435 interviews in five cities in western China were collected. Interviewees were selected randomly, and therefore independent of each other, at mosques, urban squares and gardens, Quran classes, and Muslim shopping areas. We find that the availability of halal products in China is quite limited and consumers who are more faithful to their beliefs and who have experience in purchasing halal personal care products are willing to pay more for halal personal care products. Overall, Chinese Muslims prefer low price to high price products, and favour imported products rather than locally made produce. This study adds to the understanding of Chinese Muslim's halal consumption, an area that has attracted increasing attention due to the rapid expansion of its size. The findings of this study provide valuable implications for both Chinese and overseas producers who intend to benefit from China's fast-growing Muslim market and for governments to improve the availability of halal products for the well-being of the ethnic minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of everyday ethnicity emphasizes the importance of seeking the perspectives of the masses regarding processes of ethnic identity formation and ethnic boundary maintenance. In contrast to elite-centered approaches, everyday ethnicity attempts to understand how ethnicity is constructed from the bottom-up. However, seeking the everyday presents researchers with a number of distinct challenges. Prevalent among these obstacles is a tendency of non-elite respondents to direct scholars to elite authorities when responding to questions about ethnic identity, claiming they lack expertise or qualifications to speak on the subject. This epistemic deference toward elite sources may be particularly acute in ethno-religious communities, where the hierarchies of religious orders may reinforce the gulf of "knowledge" between clergy and lay believers. This article examines the problem of epistemic deference through a case study of everyday ethnicity in urban Hui Muslim communities in China. Drawing on data collected over the course of 152 interviews and numerous ethnographic observations conducted in four cities in China (Beijing, Jinan, Yinchuan, and Xining) between July 2015 and July 2016, the article illustrates the challenges posed by epistemic deference to field researchers in religious communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study documents the extensive online anti-Muslim sentiment in China as well as the use of social media by Chinese Muslims from various backgrounds to engage with the online public sphere and respond to this hostile discourse. We analyzed more than 10,000 social media posts on Weibo relating to Muslims and Islam and conducted in-depth interviews with 34 Chinese Muslims who were active users of social media. Our findings reveal an anti-Muslim online frame, and we detail the ways in which Chinese Muslims have sought to influence public policy in order to protect their rights. The participants in this study responded to hateful posts and worked to increase the understanding of their religion and culture by providing glimpses of their daily lives and by discussing Islam. Nevertheless, owing to government censorship and to the prevailing Han-centric discourse, Chinese Muslims continue to face numerous risks and challenges, particularly in coping with the ideological conflict between their religion and the atheistic ruling party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the activities of the Syrian hadith scholar Saʿid Muḥammad al-ʿAsali al-Ṭarabulsi al-Shami (1870–1932?), better known as Shami Damulla, as a window onto the relationship between the Ottoman empire and the Muslims of Xinjiang, or Eastern Turkistan. Scholars of Islam in the Soviet Union have identified al-ʿAsali as an influential figure in Soviet Turkistan in the 1920s, but much remains to be clarified about his formative years, and his multiple sojourns in China prior to the Russian Revolution. Here, I seek to fill some of these gaps by tracing al-ʿAsali's connections to modernist and revivalist scholarly circles in India and the Middle East, his activities in Xinjiang, and the strategies he adopted to insert himself into the relationship between the Ottoman court and China. These strategies were both political and intellectual. While moving within Muslim communities across Eurasia, al-ʿAsali also sought to engage the Chinese tradition on its own terms, authoring a 1905 study of Qing institutions entitled The Law of China (Qanun al-Sin)—a rare example of intellectual exchange between late-Ottoman Islamic reformism and the revitalized Confucianism of the late Qing. From a diverse range of sources, a picture emerges of a figure much more complicated, though no less controversial, than can be found in existing characterizations of al-ʿAsali. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will reconstruct how Chinese Christians and Muslims, as civilians, sought a sense of justice in the midst of war through their religious discourses in their magazines, The True Light Review and Yue Hua. It will firstly analyse the particular situation that Christianity and Islam in China faced in 1930s and will compare their characteristics in terms of hermeneutics of their respective sacred texts and the strategy of linking up social circumstance and religious thought. It will study how Yue Hua understood the Japanese aggression through the lens of the Islamic revival movement, focusing particularly on how it argued that Japanese pan-Asianism was not an option for the Islamic revival movement in China. With regard to The True Light Review, it will analyse how the Baptist pacifist position changed during the war and how the writers in the semi-occupied Shanghai International Settlement interpreted their religious teaching to understand the war of resistance as a just war. It will argue that linking literary creativity with deep spiritual piety and solidarity for compatriots is the key to differentiating the use of religious discourse as a mere political tool from religious political discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the media representation of Muslims using critical discourse analysis (CDA). It emphasises the discursive construction of governmental paternalism that forms the dominant ideological disposition of China Daily 's (CD) coverage. The results reveal how Chinese official English newspapers facilitate the government's dissemination of paternalistic discourse in the news of a large population of Chinese Muslims over the period. The investigation combines topic modelling with topos analysis to identify topics and topoi and to exhibit the ideology through the corpus compiled with CD's news about Chinese Muslims. Our findings both uncover the extent to which CD is used to promote paternalistic discourse by topic and reveal how paternalism is constructed by topoi. CD can be seen to strongly legitimise the paternalistic framework corresponding with the government's promotion of social development and security in the region. Reciprocally, most Chinese Muslims are portrayed as obedient and dependent Chinese citizens who benefit from the government's intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to present an explanation of why the Muslim governments largely abstained from even bringing up the Uyghur case with China, while the Rohingya issue provoked official condemnations by the governments in many Muslim countries. Although economic factors are most often consulted internationally, this article puts forward political factors as sufficient to explain the Muslim governments' responses to the Xinjiang issue – primarily the domestic politics, and secondarily seeking of strategic alternatives to balance the West. In the context of hybrid political regimes in many Muslim countries, the domestic public opinion played an important role in deciding whether the government would address the issue. Effectively only Turkey presents the case where the public pays attention to the Uyghurs, and the government felt obliged to raise the issue at least to some extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qingzhen in Mandarin and musulmanche in Uyghur are two local expressions of halal in China. This article investigates the local meanings of halal from the perspectives of Uyghurs and Hui, who are the major Muslim ethnic minorities in China. It argues that the expressions of qingzhen and musulmanche demonstrate social concerns, anxiety of ethnic identity and ongoing intra-group competitions, which are not exclusively related to religion. The secularisation process since the qingzhen food debate has created tensions between the state and individuals of Uyghur and Hui and has embarrassed people within the same group. This tension between ethnicity and religion is largely the result of clarifying the ambiguity that bears in cultural intimacy, which originally keeps a balance between the state and its ethnic minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to uncover how Chinese Muslims in Surabaya developed their identity in Post-Reformation. During the New Order regime, they could not show their identity as a part of Indonesian diversity. Chinese identity has merged with the “native” people. Along with the downfall of the authoritarian political system and the development of multiculturalism and pluralism, Chinese Muslims in Surabaya could express their cultural identity. This study uses a qualitative method with an ethnographic approach. The results of the study reveal that the Chinese Muslims in Surabaya developed their cultural identity through Cheng Hoo Mosque, Chinese Muslim Organization, and Imlek Celebration. The cultural identity created a hybrid identity which is a combination of Chinese, Java, and Islamic cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of travel and living in China for learning about Muslims living in China.

The Uighurs are linguistically and culturally distinct from the Han Chinese majority, and they have a strong sense of identity, often associated with a violent resistance against China's central government and with conflictual relationships with the Han living in Xinjiang. Despite Xinjiang's development over the past decades, especially after the implementation of the Great Western Development Program by the Chinese central government, the region still lags behind the country's economically developed eastern regions due to various historical, environmental and social reasons. This program did not contribute much to regional equality, economic efficiency or improving inter-ethnic relations. The side effects of national development strategy including massive Han in-migration and environmental degradation exacerbated ethnic tensions and strengthened nationalist tendencies among the Uighurs. Yet, to investigate recent changes in social mobility of Uighur population is of great importance. Based on the publicly released 2000 and 2010 censuses data, this paper assesses the changes in Uighur population with respect to education, occupational status and internal migration in a comparative perspective through calculating population concentration indexes and location quotients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses China's religious policy and its setting up of re-education camps in Xinjiang to carry out anti-extremist ideological education. Topics covered include the Uighurs as the target of the assimilation measure into adopting Chinese language, culture, and customs, the cracking down of Christians in China for overt displays of religiosity, and whether terrorism is the reason behind the crackdown as Islamist extremism becomes a legitimate concern for China.

This article examines how the classicist and folklorist Gu Jiegang, in conversation with his Hui (Chinese Muslim) colleagues at the Yugong study society and journal (published 1934–1937), theorized the "Chinese nation" (Zhonghua minzu) as an internally plural and open-ended political project, to resist homogenizing claims by both Japanese imperialists and the ruling Chinese Nationalist party under Chiang Kai-shek in the 1930s. Echoing the struggles of his Hui colleagues to articulate their place in the nation as both Muslim and Chinese, Gu reworked traditional "culturalist" assumptions about the non-racial character of identity formation to pose minority experience as constitutive of a constantly expanding and transforming political community. When Gu asserted in his notorious 1939 essay that the " Zhonghua minzu Is One," he posed a unity built not on cultural assimilation or ethnic identity, but on a shared political commitment to an expansive and culturally hybrid concept of the "Chinese nation." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, reports have emerged that China operates "political re-education" camps of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. China justified them as a sort of vocational training program to assist Uyghurs in participating in the Chinese economy. In actuality, they are brutal incarceration camps; these forms of 'education' can qualify as torture that perhaps 1.5 million adults have been subjected to, and have led to detaining children of people incarcerated in state-run boarding schools. It is necessary to interrogate the underlying factors that have enabled the Chinese government to open and operate these camps under the guise of education. This paper first examines the impact of the current geopolitical interests of China's Belt & Road Initiative and the historical backgrounds of Xinjiang and the Re-Education through Labour program. It then explains the methods of 'education' taking place within the camps and interrogates China's justifications for building them. This education issue is more about inhibiting Uyghur power than China's claim that the camps are meant to empower Uyghurs to participate in the Chinese labour force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamic banking has been growing rapidly worldwide and is not only widespread in Muslim countries, but also in western countries as well. Even if Islamic banking services have been offered in Ninxia province since 2009 to serve about 23 million Muslims in the population, the development of Islamic banking in China has been almost stagnant. Notwithstanding this reality, this study seeks to examine the factors that influence Chinese Muslims' intention to adopt Islamic banking. Employing the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the study investigates the effects of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and religious obligation on intention to adopt Islamic banking services among the Chinese Muslims. Survey data was collected from 669 Muslim respondents across four major cities in western China namely Lanzhou, Wulumuqi, Xining and Yinchuan. The hypothesized relationships are examined by using Analysis of Moments Structures (AMOS). The results show that apart from the common determinants of TPB: attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behaviour control, religious obligation significantly influence the intention to adopt Islamic banking among Chinese Muslims in western China. This indicates that Chinese Muslims regard religious obligation as very important in deciding their choice of banking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rashīd Riḍā's six fatwas to China, disregarded by historians of China and by historians of Salafism, greatly expand our historical understanding of transnational intellectual exchanges between Muslim reformers in the interwar period. The questions that prompted the fatwas shed new light on the specific issues that divided Sino-Muslim nationalists in the republican era, when a Chinese awakening coincided with an Islamic awakening. They also reveal why a Sino-Muslim scholar, seeking external arbitration, decided to write to a Muslim authority in Cairo. The fatwas that ensued show, in turn, the care that Riḍā took to transmit his legal methods and religious values to a foreign country, where Muslims mainly followed the Ḥanafī school of law. On the basis of the fatwas, which were translated into Chinese, the article offers not an arbitrary, abstract, or ahistorical understanding of the origins of Salafism in China, but a concrete grasp of Salafism in translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes my previous photobook, Chinese Muslims in Indonesia (2007-09) as starting point. The paper firstly details the motivations, methodology and findings of the work. It then advances some of my thoughts on photography, with its attentive focus on the particular. Photography, or documenting (as method), frames a performative and experiential space for the sitter and the photographer to project their desires in this collaborative encounter. Here, I discuss the performative in relation both to the issue of reactivity in sociological fieldwork and the cultural turn in dakwah amongst some Chinese Muslim leaders in the post-Suharto era. The subjectivity of each encounter helps to visualise and complicate the notion of Chineseness amongst the Chinese Muslim communities in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a secularist state, China has always been highly sensitive about religious traditions, particularly Islam. During the late 1990s and especially after the 9/11 terrorist events, the government rhetoric has been to equate the Islamic knowledge and identity with violent ethnic separatism, and more recently extremism and terrorism (Roberts, 2016, 2018). Thus, the Uyghurs' right to access Islamic knowledge and practice Islam has been increasingly restricted and diminished (Cook, 2017; Millward, 2018). After reviewing the recent history of Chinese rhetoric and policies regarding the religious education in Xinjiang, this article discusses the possible ramifications of such developments, via the lenses of postcolonialism, the Politics of Recognition (Taylor, 1994), the push and pull factors that trigger radicalization, and religious literacy. Meanwhile, through sharing the perspectives of the Uyghur diaspora in Canada, the author also highlights that current Chinese policies and practices could deepen the "us" vs. "them" dichotomy between the Muslim Uyghurs and the majority Han population as well as the Chinese state, therefore creating more tension in society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to relativise the nationalism of Chinese-speaking Muslims, which has tended to be overemphasised in previous studies, focusing on a movement in which Muslims in North China cut off their braids or queues––Manchu men’s traditional hairstyle imposed on Chinese people under the Qing rule––and related debates among the Muslim elite before and after the Xinhai Revolution. Unlike some Chinese men who cut off their braids for patriotic reasons or anti-Manchu sentiment, Muslims did so for religious reasons, arguing that Islam forbids queues because they look like the tail of a pig, an animal considered to be unclean in their religion. It is notable that some Muslims simply followed the social trend among the majority and cut off their queues, while a young Muslim scholar in Tianjin chose not to do so to prevent conflicts among Muslims and save face. This study thus illustrates the complex and diverse opinions of Muslims at that time, which cannot be completely explained by patriotism or piety.