2019/01/01 by Yee Lak Elliot Lee, Lee, Yee Lak Elliot
Social Sciences · #Asian Studies and History #China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations #Chinese history and philosophy #Hui identity #Islam #ethnization #late imperial and Republican China #multiple secularities #nation state #religionization #social differentiation
paper · pdf · doi:10.12759/hsr.44.2019.3.226-263
openalex publication_date 2019/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
As a minority in China, Muslims have had to deal with a twofold problem: maintaining the boundary of their group and integrating into larger society. The various responses to this problem in different contexts and under different circumstances are evident in various group identity configurations. Based on Stausberg, it is proposed that the ways the identities are constructed refer to the dynamics of various types of social differentiation. The author argues that there were divergent identity configurations among Muslim elites regarding their identity sign Huihui in late imperial and post-imperial China, with the former constructed in the direction of religiosity and the latter in the direction of secularity. In the concluding remark, the author suggests a theoretical account of his empirical observation by drawing on elements of Luhmann’s theory of social differentiation.