Bai Shouyi (literary name Zhaolun, Muslim name Jamāl al-Dīn) (1909-2000) became a prominent and prolific historian of China and of Chinese-speaking Muslims, referred to as the Hui, one of the fifty-five minority nationalities in China, to which he belonged. He represented successfully the elite Chinese and Chinese Muslim intellectuals. His career developed in three stages. Before the foundation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, he was trained, published his first articles (beginning at the age of nineteen), and worked with progressive historians.