BLACK TAPE OVER IDENTITIES: MINORITY HUI MUSLIMS & NATIONAL BELONGING IN CONTEMPORARY XI AN, CHINA

Abstract

This thesis is an ethnographic study of Hui Muslim s lived experiences in contemporary Xi an, China, and their relations to the Chinese state. Focusing on the experiences and opinions of Hui Muslims residing in, or who have resided in, the Xi an Muslim Quarter, this thesis examines how Chinese state policies, specifically the Sinicisation of Religion, shape their identity construction. Ethnography is the investigative method to understand the everyday experiences and identity construction of the Hui people. A multi-pronged approach comprising visual ethnography, ethnography of communication, and ethnography of silence, was employed. Borrowing James Scott s (1998) concept of legibility , this thesis frames Sinicisation and its informed measures as a legibility-making project which developed on the state assumption that Islam in China is an illegible subject . It later demonstrates the messiness of on-the-ground realities of Hui s identity constructions and cultural expressions, in which the boundary between Chinese-ness and Muslim-ness is getting blurred. The Chinese state policies do not represent these realities accurately, nor is the state power interested in engaging with them. Lastly, the thesis investigates different socio-political forces, namely Arabisation, Sinicisation and Modernisation, which incentivise the Hui to negotiate and (re)construct their hyphenated Chinese-Muslim identity in various times. Theoretically, this thesis enriches the Chinese minority studies by discussing how Chinese modern statecraft shape Hui s minority identity, borrowing Scott s concept of legibility. It aslo illustrates the gaps between state assumptions and on-the-ground realities in the management of the Hui minority group in China.