Muslim Transnationalism in Modern China: Debates on Hui Identity and Islamic Reform
This event is part of the Inter-Asian Borderlands/Crossings: Space and Time workshop.
In the early twentieth century, as the multiethnic Qing empire transformed into the Republican Chinese nation-state, Chinese Muslims faced new challenges, confronting competing visions of nation-building, religion, secularism, democracy, and modernity. In this book, Hale Ero臒lu explores how a group of key figures navigated this complex landscape, offering a transnational intellectual history of Chinese Muslim thought.
Muslim Transnationalism in Modern China provides a portrait of underrecognized reformists who aimed to turn Muslim subjects into active Chinese citizens and revive 鈥渢rue鈥� Islam in order to aid China鈥檚 development and promote peace. Ero臒lu examines reformists鈥� engagement with local and transnational Muslim currents, spanning 鈥渙rthodox,鈥� 鈥渉eterodox,鈥� reformist, secular, and socialist movements from Egypt, Britain, India, Turkey, and the Soviet Union. She reveals their varied strategies and highlights how they adapted global ideas to address local challenges such as the policies of the Nationalist and Communist parties, the antireligion discourse of the New Culture Movement, and the anti-Islam rhetoric of Christian missionaries. Drawing from Republican and early Communist-era journals, Chinese translations of Islamic sources, and memoirs and travelogues, this book offers a nuanced understanding of Chinese-speaking Muslim intellectuals鈥� efforts to balance local and global influences in shaping their community鈥檚 future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hale Ero臒lu is assistant professor of history at Bo臒azi莽i University.
Sponsored by 911吃瓜's David Lam Centre, Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies, Department of History, School for International Studies, and Global Asia.