The Making of Sino Muslim Identity: Han Kitab in the Chinese Xidaotang

Abstract

The seemingly oxymoronic term Sino Muslim has a historical relevance of more than 1,300 years in China. Historically, migration and intermarriage gave rise to a Sinophone Muslim population, upon which a body of Islamic literature written in Chinese three hundred years ago, known as Han Kitab, had played an instrumental role in shaping a distinct Sino Muslim identity. Despite dramatic transformations of modern Chinese society, we found that the Han Kitab tradition continues to be alive today in China’s grassroots-level Muslim society. This article documents, for the first time with a probability sample, an extensive exposure to the Han Kitab literature among ordinary followers of a major Chinese Islamic sect, Xidaotang. More importantly, such exposure—in both private and public spheres of life—simultaneously contributes to the core Islamic religiosity as well as distinctive affinities to their fellow Chinese people regardless of religion (in comparison to foreign Muslims). These findings have profound implications given the increasing significance of China as an agent of globalization.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Morris and Anita Broad Research Fellowship by the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, Florida International University, and the Provost Humanities Research Grant by the Florida International University. I am grateful for Yumei Ding and Junqing Min for the data collection. I also thank Zheng Mu, Carlos Grenier, Lana Shehadeh, Yumei Ding, and Junqing Min for their helpful comments on the paper.

Additional information

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Qing Lai

Qing Lai ([email protected]) currently teaches at Florida International University as an assistant professor of sociology. He graduated with a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan. He received graduate training at the Population Studies Center and Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research. His research interests include Chinese Muslims, development, demography, and social stratification. He has published peer-reviewed articles in Social Science Research, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Chinese Sociological Review, Chinese Journal of Sociology, Research in the Sociology of Work, Natural Hazards, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). His current research focuses on the Muslim population in China. He analyzes census and survey data to examine Chinese Muslims’ population heterogeneity and their relations with the Han majority, the Chinese State, and the Islamic world. He is collaborating with multiple Chinese institutions to collect survey data on Chinese Muslims.