Book Description

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. The history of Islam in China contextualizes modern revival movements as the latest in a long line of new ideas Chinese Muslims have brought from the Middle East to revitalize and unintentionally destabilize Chinese Islam. Contrasting nonobservant "ethnic Muslims" with devout "reaffirmed Muslims" illustrates key characteristics of revival that transcend sectarian boundaries to create broader forms of identification perceived to be more modern. Profiling imams from different sects highlights how theological debates underlie differences in religious practice and authority. Describing how individuals withstand social and familial censure to participate in Tablighi Jama'at or Salafiyya, convert to Islam, or embrace more devout forms of practice illustrates how some perceive embracing the universal ummah over devalued local communities as a form of individual empowerment. These individual paths to revival have broad implications for our understanding of ethnic, national, and transnational identities and communities within China and other secular states. Numerous profiles of informants reveal diverse visions of modernity and perceptions of transnational alliances and conflicts within and in relation to the global ummah. Overall, most Chinese Muslims see themselves as a particularly virtuous group within (and usually not wholly opposed to) the predominantly Han and atheist nation. Revivalists tend to emphasize a sense of belonging to an imagined transnational community rather than a parochial ethnic community or a materialist national one.