ISLAM AND CHINESNESS A Closer Look at Minority Moslems in Modern China Historiography

This paper will address a historiographical review on how non-Chinese scholars, mostly those Western specialists, describe minority Moslem of Hui in the scholarly narration of modern China. Four scholarly works on China Moslems are comparativelly discussed. Although the Hui have formally been recognized as the minority group within the Han majority, Chinese historical materials on Hui are not significant. Recenlty, works on Hui either written by local or non-Chinese scholars remain artificial, but they are necessarily important to be explored. There has been dominantly known scholars consider two perspetives in dealing with Islam and Chinesness in China, the compatibility and incompatibility of Islam with the Chinese tradition and values, where both are respectivelly represnted by the minority Hui and the majority Han. Finally, in term of understanding Chinese Moslem in modern China, the paper will urge the importance of deploying mixed perspectives and of making Chinese-centered perspective the matter of writting local history while incorporating the minority within the wider historical narration of the majority of Han and the Islamic world.