Who and where are they?
How are they?
CHINA:
THE HUI PEOPLE
Ángela Rivero Casal
INTR 3900 A
INTRODUCTION
Where?
Hui people can be found throughout China, especially in the provinces of Ningxia, Qinghai, and Gansu; and mainly in these cities: Taoyuan, Hansou, Dingcheng, Lixian of Changde City, Longhui, Shaodong, Shaoyang county of Shaoyang city, Longshan, Fengfang, Yongshun of west Hunan.
Who?
CHINA IN THE WORLD
Hui people is one of China's largest ethnic groups. There are about 9,8 million of Hui people in China, and they are one of the 56 officially recognized ethnic minorities in the country.
They have been adapted to Han people maintaining their own culture too. There aren't any non-Chinese languages associated to them. Some Hui people is good at Arabic and Farsi too.
Introduction of Islam in China
Some History...
Where do they come from?
These people were artisans, tradesmen, scholars, officials and religious leaders. They spread to many parts of the country and settled down in some cities near to seaports.
In the 14th century, the Yuan Dynasty recruited Muslims as soldiers and administrators.
However, between the 15th and the 17th century, Chinese wanted to rid foreigners out of China. In order to avoid persecution, Muslims adopted Chinese culture and language.
Hui people have different origins, but many of them come directly from Silk Road travelers.
Persian and Arab people came into the area in the 7th century, in order to trade with Chinese people. This way they introduced Islam in China.
Chinese people called Muslims, Jews, and Christians by the same name, "Hui Hui".
In particular, Muslims were called "Hui who abstain from pork".
HUI
ISLAM
Islam has a deep influence in Hui life.
The words qing zhen (pure and true) are related to them, in reference to all Islamic ideals. This expression is usually placed on the signs of Hui establishments where Islamic ideals of purity are supposedly maintained: restaurants, food stores (food is free of pork and other unclean products), mosques...
Sufi
Orders
Menhuan
The Qadiriyya order
The Jahriyya order
The Khufiyya order
Physical appearance
The majority of Hui are Sunni and many of them have never heard of Shiite Muslims.
Hui Islam has been greatly influenced by Sufism too since the seventeenth century, and currently about 20 percent are in Sufi orders. The Sufi movement made Hui people organize themselves into religious orders with Sufi leaders.
The four orders or menhuan ("saintly descent groups") are the Qadiriyya, the Khufiyya, the Jahriyya, and the Kubrawiyya. Within these four main orders there are numerous smaller menhuan and branches.
- It was the first order established.
- It combined Daoist mysticism, Confucianism and Buddhist folk rituals with Islamic content.
- They identify themselves with Arabians rather than Chinese.
- They defend vocal "dhikr" (vocal remembrance) and oppose the veneration of Islamic saints.
- They visit and meditate at saints‘ tombs in order to seek guidance and inspiration.
- They emphasize the veneration of saints and the dhikr (silent remembrance).
Nowadays, they are ethnically similar to Han people, but still maintain some particular features.
Their physical appearance is more similar to Central Asian than Han Chinese. They have hazel green eyes, long beards, high-bridged noses and light hair. some of them even have red hair.
Where do they live?
They concentrated around mosques. These places were the center of their social activities, economic contacts, and where they share with the others their common political fate and their common belief in the Islamic religion.
They set up their own villages in the countryside or stayed in suburban areas of the city.
Some unique Islam practices
- Hui people followed Chinese customs and Islamic laws. However, they refused to consume alcohol, tobacco and opium.
- The Huis never eat pork nor the blood of any animal or creature that died of itself.
- However, they took up some Chinese practices like incense burning at ancestral tablets and honoring Confucius.
- Some Hui believe that Islam is the true and only religion, accusing Buddhists and Daoists of being heretics. They emphasized that Islam was superior to the others religions.
- Hui people usually have a Han Chinese name and an Islamic name in Arabic, but they usually use their Chinese name.
- The Huis are particular about sanitation and hygiene. They pray five times a day, and they have to wash their face, mouth, nose, hands and feet, or even take a thorough bath of the whole body before attending religious services.
HUI LIFE
Marriage
- Hui marriage tends to endogamy, especially in the Northwest of China, where the Hui are more conservative.
- The Hui Na family in Ningxia is known to practice cousin marriage.
- Hui women cannot marry Han men; however Hui men can marry Han or other non-Hui women who are willing to convert into Islam.
Clothes
Economy
- Men usually wear white or black caps and white brimless cloth caps.
- Women wear veils, but they differ from place to place. Most veils only cover hair and neck, but some only expose the eyes. The color of the veil reflect the status of women: unmarried young women wear pink or other veils; middle-aged women wear black ones, and those over 60 wear white veils.
- In north rural areas the Hui are mostly growers of wheat and dry rice. In the south they raise wet rice.
- In the city, Hui are most often laborers or factory workers.
- However, the Hui are famous traders. That is the reason why they are dispersed all over the country.
- Currently, 29% of the Hui work in service industries.
Sources
Festivals and Folklore
- The main Hui festivals are the Kaizhai Festival, the Corban Festival and the Almsgiving Festival.
- During the whole ninth month of the year they celebrate the Kaizhai Festival. Men older than 12 and women older than 9 go out and fast from sunrise to sunset. Relatives and friends serve choice beef and mutton, and fried cakes.
- Dillon, Michael. 1999. China's Muslim Hui community: migration, settlement and sects . Richmond: Curzon Press
- Countries and their cultures: Hui. Last modified September 2011. www.everyculture.com/Russia-Eurasia-China/Hui.html (Countries and their cultures. 2011) Islam in China: The Hui people.(2009) http://www.islamichina.com/Muslims/THP.html ( Islam in China. 2009)
- Hui ethnic minority. http://www.china.org.cn/e-groups/shaoshu/shao-2-hui.htm
- New World Encyclopedia: The Hui people. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Hui_people#Festivals
ANY QUESTIONS?
...Thank you