Individual Paths to the Global Ummah: Islamic Revival and Ethnic Identity in Northwest China
[Thesis]
Alexander Blair Stewart
Jordan, David K.
University of California, San Diego
2014
401
Committee members: Brenner, Suzanne; Madsen, Richard; Parish, Steven M.; Rahimi, Babak
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-23560-9
Ph.D.
Anthropology
University of California, San Diego
2014
The ongoing resurgence of religious practice in China features an Islamic revival characterized by rejection of the traditional association of religion with ethnicity, emphasis on individual understanding and devotion, and the embrace of an imagined transnational community that is both modern and universal. Exploring how this revival influences individual experiences of religion and the status of Islam and the Hui ethnic group of Chinese-speaking Muslims within the Chinese state uncovers profound implications for the relationships among religion, ethnicity and modernity and the role of religion within secular states. This study is based on ethnographic research in and around Xining, Qinghai Province, among participants in the Salafiyya and Tablighi Jama'at movements, converts to Islam, and 'reaffirmed Muslims' who have recently embraced more devout forms of Islamic practice without changing their sectarian affiliation.
Religious history; Cultural anthropology; Islamic Studies
Philosophy, religion and theology;Social sciences;China;Ethnicity;Hui;Islamic revival;Salafiyya;Tablighi jama'at