Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-tsvsl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-27T23:15:57.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Violence, the State, and a Chinese Muslim Ritual Remembrance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2008

Maris Gillette
Get access

Abstract

This article discusses how contemporary Chinese Muslims in the city of Xi'an remember a massive conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims that devastated northwest China in the Tongzhi period (1862–74) of the Qing dynasty. Every year on the seventeenth day of the fifth lunar month, local Hui hold a series of mourning rituals for the Muslims who died at that time. They recount stories about these events during the ritual and in other settings. The author uses Bakhtin's concept of “social heteroglossia” to explore the discursive features of three accounts of the violence, arguing that Xi'an Hui memories of this past show the influence of state-sponsored ethnic policies, a religious model of Hui identity, and a less formally articulated collective sentiment (what Raymond Williams calls a “structure of feeling”) based on shared experience. The author discusses how these discourses are disseminated and which factors generate the “structure of feeling” that colors contemporary Muslim accounts of the Tongzhi period, and reflects on the consequences of Xi'an Hui internalization of the state's framework for ethnic identity.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 67 , Issue 3 , August 2008 , pp. 1011 - 1037
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of Characters

Ahong

阿訇

Baba

爸爸

Changxi

唱戏

Dajiu

大舅

Gedimu

格迪目

Guo nietie

过乜贴

Hanmin

汉民

Huazhou

华洲

Hui

回

Huihui lai le

回回来了

Huimin

回民

Huimin qiyi

回民起义

Huimin shi Musilin de yisi

回民是穆斯林的意思

Huiminfang

回民坊

Huini zaofan

回逆造反

Huizu

回族

Lao jiao

老教

Lishi yiliu

历史遗留

Manla

满拉

Meiyou qiyi

没有起义

Minzu

民族

Minzu chongtu

民族冲突

Minzu chouhen

民族仇恨

Minzu maodun

民族矛盾

Minzu shengcun

民族生存

Minzu tuanjie

民族团结

Nana

娜娜

Ni shi Huimin ma

你是回民吗

Panluan

叛乱

Pohuai minzu tuanjie

破坏民族团结

Qiyi

起义

Shaoshu minzu

少数民族

Shen

神

Shibian

事变

Tamen de pinwei jao

他们的品位高

Tongzhi

同治

Tusha

屠杀

Wei jiao xisheng

为教牺牲

Wenhua

文化

Wo jiaoren

吾教人

Xi Hui

洗回

Xie

鞋

Yeshi

野事

Zei

贼

Zha

铡

Zhenzhu

真主

Zhongguo

中国

阿訇

爸爸

唱戏

大舅

格迪目

过乜贴

汉民

华洲

回

回回来了

回民

回民起义

回民是穆斯林的意思

回民坊

回逆造反

回族

老教

历史遗留

满拉

没有起义

民族

民族冲突

民族仇恨

民族矛盾

民族生存

民族团结

娜娜

你是回民吗

叛乱

破坏民族团结

起义

少数民族

神

事变

他们的品位高

同治

屠杀

为教牺牲

文化

吾教人

洗回

鞋

野事

贼

铡

真主

中国

List of References

Shiwei, An and Nuanzhi, Zheng, eds. 1993. Concise Dictionary of Islam [Yisilan jianming cidian]. Jiangsu: Jiangsu Ancient Books.Google Scholar
Armijo-Hussein, Jackie. 2001. “Massacres and Religious Remembrance: The Muslims of Southwest China.” In Crisis and Memory in Islamic Societies, ed. Neuwirth, Angelika and Pflitsch, Andreas, 417–31. Wurzburg: Ergon.Google Scholar
Atwill, David G. 2003. “Blinkered Visions: Islamic Identity, Hui Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China, 1856–1873.” Journal of Asian Studies 62 (4): 1079–1108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atwill, David G. 2005. The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China, 1856–1873. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1935. “Social Heteroglossia.” In The Bakhtin Reader, ed. Morris, Pam, 73–80. London: Edward Arnold, 1994.Google Scholar
Benite, Zvi Ben-Dor. 2002. “‘Even unto China’: Displacement and Chinese Muslim Myths of Origin.” Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Interfaith Studies 4 (2): 93–114.Google Scholar
Benite, Zvi Ben-Dor. 2004. “From ‘Literati’ to ‘Ulama’: The Origins of Chinese Muslim Nationalist Historiography.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 9 (4): 83–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Melissa J., ed. 1996. Negotiating Ethnicities in China and Taiwan. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
Wen-djang, Chu. 1966. The Moslem Rebellion in Northwest China 1862–1878: A Study of Government Minority Policy. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Diamond, Norma. 1995. “Defining the Miao: Ming, Qing, and Contemporary Views.” In Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers, ed. Harrell, Stevan, 92–116. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Xiaotong., Fei 1981. Toward a People's Anthropology. Beijing: New World Press.Google Scholar
Gillette, Maris. 2000. Between Mecca and Beijing: Modernization and Consumption among Urban Chinese Muslims. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Gillette, Maris. 2006. “Women's Stories, Discourse, and the Power of Feelings in China: A Case from a Muslim Neighborhood.” Asian Anthropology 5: 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gladney, Dru C. 1990. “The Ethnogenesis of the Uighur.” Central Asian Studies 9 (1): 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gladney, Dru C. 1991. Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Harrell, Stevan. 1990. “Ethnicity, Local Interests, and the State: Yi Communities in Southwest China.” Comparative Study of Society and History 32 (3): 515–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrell, Stevan. ed. 1995. Cultural Encounters on China's Ethnic Frontiers. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Harrell, Stevan. 1996. “The Nationalities Question and the Prmi Problem.” In Negotiating Ethnicities in China and Taiwan, ed. Brown, Melissa, 274–96. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
Binggao, Jin. 1984. “Discussion of the Production and Effect of the Marxist Definition of Nationality” [Shilun Makesizhuyi minzu dingyi de chansheng jiqi yingxiang]. Zhongyang minzu xueyuan xuebao [Central Minorities Institute Newsletter] 3: 64–67.Google Scholar
Jordan, David. 1972. Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: The Folk Religion of a Taiwanese Village. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fanwen, Li and Chengui, Yu eds. 1988. Xibei Huimin qiyi yanjiu ziliao huibian [A compendium of research on the Righteous Uprising of the Hui in northwest China]. Ningxia.Google Scholar
Shujiang, Li and Luckert., Karl 1994. Mythology and Folklore of the Hui, a Chinese Muslim People. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Lipman, Jonathan N. 1987. “Hui-Hui: An Ethnohistory of the Chinese-Speaking Muslims.” Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies 11 (1–2): 112–30.Google Scholar
Lipman, Jonathan N. 1990. “Ethnic Violence in Modern China: Hans and Huis in Gansu, 1781–1929.” In Violence in China: Essays in Culture and Counterculture, ed. Lipman, Jonathan N. and Stevan, Harrell, 65–83. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Lipman, Jonathan N. 1997. Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Liu, K. C., and Smith, Robert. 1980. “The Military Challenge: The North-West and the Coast.” In The Cambridge History of China, vol. 2, ed. Fairbank, John K. and Liu, Kwang-Ching, 202–73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tik-sang, Liu 1995. “A Fluid Community and Shamanism in Rural South China.” Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Tik-sang, Liu. 2003. “A Nameless but Active Religion: An Anthropologist's View of Local Religion in Hong Kong and Macau.” China Quarterly 174: 373–94.Google Scholar
Changshou, Ma, ed. 1993. Tongzhi nianjian Shaanxi Huimin qiyi lishi diaocha jilu [A record of investigations into the history of Shaanxi Hui during the Tongzhi period]. Xi'an: Shaanxi People's Publishing House.Google Scholar
MacInnis, Donald E. 1989. Religion in China Today: Policy and Practice. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.Google Scholar
Notar, Beth. 2001. “Du Wenxiu and the Politics of the Muslim Past.” Twentieth-Century China 26 (2): 63–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pillsbury, Barbara. 1975. “Pig and Policy: Maintenance of Boundaries between Han and Muslim Chinese.” In Minorities: A Text with Readings in Intergroup Relations, ed. Eugene Griessman, B., 136–45. Hinsdale, Ill.: Dryden Press.Google Scholar
Hongmo, Shao and Min, Han, eds. 1992. History of the Shaanxi Hui Uprising [in Chinese]. Xi'an: Shaanxi People's Publishing House.Google Scholar
Guojie, Wang and Pingyi., Ma 1993. “Quguo wanly qing bugai, lixiang bainian hun shangcun” [Ten thousand miles and more than 100 years after leaving their home villages and country, an emotional connection remains]. Shaanxi Ribao [Shaanxi Daily], December 18.Google Scholar
Watson, James L. 1991. “Waking the Dragon: Visions of the Chinese Imperial State in Local Myth.” In An Old State in New Settings: Studies in the Social Anthropology of China in Memory of Maurice Freedman, ed. Baker, Hugh and Feuchtwang, Stephan, 162–77. Oxford: JASO.Google Scholar
Watson, Rubie S. 1994. “Making Secret Histories: Memory and Mourning in Post-Mao China.” In Memory, History and Opposition under State Socialism, ed. Watson, Rubie S., 65–85. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.Google Scholar
Williams, Raymond. 1977. “Structures of Feeling.” In Marxism and Literature, by Raymond Williams, 128–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wu, David. 1990. “Chinese Minority Policy and the Meaning of Minority Culture: The Example of the Bai in Yunnan, China.” Human Organization 49 (1): 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, David. 1994. “The Construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese Identities.” In The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, ed. Wei-ming, Tu, 148–67. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar