What is the meaning of �Hui�?
It is the Chinese word (pronounced �whey�) used to refer to all Muslims, both inside and outside China. It should be noted that only small fraction of the Hui practices the Christian or Jewish faith.
Where is the population of Hui concentrated?
The Hui live in almost every city and town across China. They have one autonomous region - Ningxia, between southern Gansu and Inner Mongolia. Peking was the center of Hui culture and even today some 67 mosques are to be found in that city. There are ten other minority Muslim groups (the Uigur, Kasakh, T'uchia, Tungsiang, Kirgiz, Salar, Tajik, Tatar, Paoan) in China. So while there may be about 20 million Muslims in China, the Hui make up only the largest ethnic sub-group.
What is the Hui population of China?
According to the 1990 census, the People's Republic of China is 17.6 million, out of which there were 8.6 million Hui.
Where did the Hui come from?
They come from Arab, Persian, Central Asian, and Mongol origins, and arrived in China in several waves. (More history will be given later.)
What language do the Hui speak?
The Hui primarily speak Chinese, the Tajik an Indo-European language related to Persian, and all the others Turkic dialects. Huihuihua is a local Chinese dialect with Arabic and Persian words. Xiaojing was a Chinese phonetic system using the Arabic alphabet. (Most mosque teachers in Northwest China were illiterate in Chinese, but they could represent sounds with Arabic) In 1981, the Oriental Language and Literature Department of Peking University published a Persian-Chinese Dictionary.
What do the Hui look like?
Because of intermarriage with the Han Chinese (the general population of China), their physical features do not differ greatly. Today, the most glaring physical difference between Chinese Muslims and Han Chinese is the small built of Chinese Muslims. According to some, there are many Chinese from former commercial hubs of the Silk Route and the Spice Route who, although no longer identified with a foreign ethnic group, show Semitic or Indo-Iranian traces in their appearance. In the Northwest, Hui physical features are more Central Asian than Han Chinese. They have hazel-green eyes, long beards, high-bridged noses and light hair-some even have red hair.
What is the diet of the Hui?
The Hui�s staple foods include rice, corn, millet and yams. A variety of foods are taboo: the flesh of pigs, donkeys and mules; oxen, sheep or poultry that died from an illness; and oxen or sheep that were not butchered by Muslims. A Hui delicacy is beef rubbed vigorously with salt and spices, sealed in an earthen container for two weeks, then left in the open air. The meat is then fried, stewed or cooked with rice. Many Hui eat exclusively at restaurants operated by Muslims. Many schools, workplaces and organizations have established canteens for the Hui operated only by Muslims.
Who are some notable Hui individuals?
The incorruptible and upright judge Hai Rui, (Ming dynasty) universally extolled in Chinese history. The admiral-eunuch, Zheng He (Ming dynasty). He was Chinese envoy and commander in chief of 6 great naval expeditions to nations in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, as far as the Red Sea. (1405-1421) Zheng He was born Ma He to a Muslim father in Yunnan, China. (Foreign immigrants in China usually take the first syllable of their native name to be the Chinese family name, hence the children of Mahmoud, or Mohammed are surnamed "Ma") The surname "Zheng" was later bestowed by the emperor Yongle. Ma is a common surname among Chinese of West Asian descent, though not all Ma's are of foreign extraction.
Summary of the Immigration by Dynasty
Tang dynasty
Non-Muslims from Persia fleeing the Islamic conquest arrive in China. Olopen, a Persian, who came to China in 635, is recorded as the first Nestorian Christian in China. Descendents of Chinese Jews also date some of the first arrivals during Tang. Major Chinese sea ports (Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Quanzhou) hosted large populations of West Asians in "Foreign Districts". Indian Jewish merchants brought cotton cloth into China. At that time, Indian homespun was valued in China. Not until the end of the 13th century did Chinese start raising and weaving cotton in China.
Song dynasty
Many Arab and Persian merchants come to China via the Silk Road over land and the Spice Route over sea. They traded in Changan, Quanzhou, Hanzhou, Kaifeng, YangZhou, and Guangzhou.
Yuan dynasty
The Persian Jamal ad-Din brought designs for the latest astronomical instruments from Persia and constructed an observatory in Beijing. The Mongol rulers bring back Arabs and Persians from West Asian lands they conquered to serve as mid-level administrators between the local Chinese and the Mongol court. Chinese Ikhwan (Muslim religious school) leader Hu Songshan promoted a new Chinese-Muslim identity based on Chinese pride. Lipman writes in Familiar Strangers: "After the Japanese invaded China proper in 1937, Hu SongShan invoked Koranic authority to urge sacrifice in the anti-Japanese struggle. To spread his message more widely, he penned a prayer in Arabic and Chinese, had it printed bilingually and posted it in all mosques, schools, and Muslim gathering places in the area..."
Ming dynasty
The founding emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, employed Muslim commanders in his army: Chang Yuqun, Lan Yu, Ding Dexing, Mu Ying and more. More recent West Asian immigrants also served in the armed forces. General Zhang Xing was the grandson of Tamudj, a captain of the calvary who, because of his skill in archery, had been given the surname Zhang by imperial decree and raised to the post of Commander of the YangZhou Guards. The Bureau of Astronomy (Qintianjian) had a special section for the study of Muslim calendrical science. Chinese Muslim merchants acted as middlemen in the commerce between China and Central/West Asia.
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