China Off Center

6. Ethnoreligious Resurgence in a Northwestern Sufi Community

In this chapter, excerpted from Dru Gladney’s significant book on the Muslim Chinese known as Hui, we learn about a community in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in which the predominant religious orientation is the Sufi sect of Islam. Ningxia is a tiny province-level area of 66,400 square kilometers where the most populous minority group is the Hui, one of China’s ten Muslim nationalities (see map 6.1). After decades of repression of religion, since the economic reforms of the late 1970s, there has been a resurgence of religious practice. Still, the state regulates and restricts religion, in part arguing that ethnic identity is separate from religious beliefs and practices. Gladney rejects this view, arguing that in fact religion is inseparable from other aspects of identity, at least for the members of the conservative Na Homestead in Ningxia. He writes of the tension between the state’s view of religion as an “opiate” and practitioners’ views of it, exemplified in the number of Party members—officially required to be atheists—who are practicing, observant Hui. One of the impressions that one gets from Gladney’s chapter is of enduring Hui struggles to construct and renegotiate an identity, even in the face of Han/state opposition. Yet, despite continuities in some areas, there are significant transformations under way in this area of Chinese life, including, notably, an increase in “ethnoreligious” identification. Gladney also points out the irony of the economic liberalization policies leading to an increase in religious conservatism, increasing ties with Muslims outside China as well as with other Hui within China itself—a “rerooting” of ethnic identity, in his words. As the government of China orchestrates a national symphony of multiethnic fraternity, the Hui have grown more skeptical of politics, distancing themselves from such administered solidarity by deepening their commitment to the practices of qing zhen (purity). So, rather than drawing ethnic minorities like the Hui toward the center of the predominantly Han nation, China’s economic and political reforms have encouraged a centrifugal intensification of local and regional identity.—Eds. 106 DRU C. GLADNEY 6 Ethnoreligious Resurgence in a Northwestern Sufi Community map 6.1. Ningxia. In the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, where over 1.2 million of China’s Hui minority reside, local cadres and government researchers are alarmed about the possibility of an Islamic “revival” among Hui youth. They are also questioning whether the private-responsibility system has engendered too much personal and religious freedom in rural areas. Cadres are surprised to find that some Hui peasants hold the mistaken idea that the Party, not only allows religious belief, but encourages it. In order to quell these rising concerns , studies by local academies of social sciences in Muslim areas are used to show that, while ethnic customs are maintained, religious belief is not necessarily strong. Reflecting traditional Chinese policy toward nationality religions , this approach clearly distinguishes between the minority itself and its religion. The policy often encourages the expression of traditional nationality customs and culture while depicting religion as extraneous to ethnicity (Ma 1989). In this chapter, I argue that Hui ethnic identity in the northwest is inseparably identified with an Islamic tradition handed down to them by their Muslim ancestors. It is more than an ethnic identity; it is ethnoreligious , in that Islam is intimately tied to the northwest Hui’s self-understanding . Recent reemergence of the meaning of Islam and stress on the requirements of a decidedly Islamic qing zhen (pure) lifestyle represent a return to northwestern Hui ethnoreligious roots. In this regard, an examination of Na Homestead discloses some of the expressions of this northwestern Hui ethnoreligious identity as well as its recent transformation in the midst of rapid socioeconomic change. A close analysis of salient Hui institutions, rituals, and texts reveals that a policy that seeks to make a clear distinction between religion and ethnicity is based on an inadequate understanding of Hui identity . The resurgence of Islamic practice and conservatism in Na Homestead, under recent liberalized policies, illustrates the importance of Islam in this context. The interaction of Na ethnic identity with recently liberalized government policies has also led to important changes in the expression of that identity and in the reformulation of local nationality policies. A FUNDAMENTALIST REVIVAL IN NA HOMESTEAD? Na Homestead is part of Yongning county, Yang He township, fifteen kilometers south of Yinchuan city in central Ningxia.1 Traveling south on...