Introduction

This chapter looks at two aspects of Muslim life in China: the development of Chinese Muslim schools, with a special emphasis on girls’ schools; and the linkages and networks of Chinese Muslim students who have travelled abroad to further their Islamic educations. The data presented here was collected over a period of five years of fieldwork carried out in southwest China among Muslims while researching the early history of Islam in this region. The aim is to show how the development of Muslim educational institutions in China and linkages to Muslim educational centres abroad has helped to give the Muslims of China a sense of identity in the context of a Muslim-minority country where Muslims have come under considerable pressure to assimilate to the dominant culture of the non-Muslim Han Chinese.

Muslim identity politics in China is linked to the development of the Muslim educational sector in many ways. Across the province of Yunnan, for instance, there is currently a tremendous revival in Islamic education. Virtually every mosque offers Qur’anic classes for children, known as kuttab in the Muslim Middle East, as well classes for older people who were denied the chance to study when they were younger. In Yunnan alone, at least 12 full-time independent Islamic colleges or madrasas have been established over the past ten years. These schools offer a full curriculum including classes on the Qur’an, hadith, tafsir, fiqh, Islamic history, Arabic grammar, and the Chinese language. At present, most of the textbooks used for the traditional Islamic sciences are from Saudi Arabia, the Arabic language textbooks from the Foreign Language Institute in Beijing, the Islamic history texts are translated from the Arabic, and the texts on the history of Islam in China are currently being published. Many of the graduates from these colleges go on to teach in smaller schools and establish new schools throughout the country (except for Xinjiang). Recently, growing numbers have chosen to continue their Islamic studies overseas.

Another visible feature of Muslim life in China today is the growing networks of students and teachers as they pursue their studies and travel to different regions to offer their services as teachers. I met Muslims from all over China who had travelled to the far southwest to continue their studies and teach, and Muslims from the southwest who had travelled to distant regions for the same purpose.