1st Edition

Sino-Muslims, Networking, and Identity in Late Imperial China Longstanding Natives and Dispersed Minorities

By Shaodan Zhang Copyright 2025
230 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

230 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

230 Pages 6 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the everyday life of Muslims in late imperial China proper (“Sino-Muslims”), revealing how they integrated themselves into Chinese society, while also maintaining distinct Islamic features.  Deeming “identity” as practical, interactive, and processual, it focuses on Sino-Muslims’ daily networking practices which embodied their numerous processes of identification with... Read more

Introduction; 1. Becoming Natives and Getting Dispersed: Formation of Sino-Muslim Communities in Late Imperial China; 2. Local Networks: Establishing Mosques as “Public Venues”; 3. Secularized Management of Mosques; 4. Local Networks and Beyond: Sino-Muslim Lineages and Worship of Islamic Ancestries; 5. Transregional Networks of Sojourning Sino-Muslim Merchants and Gentry; 6. The China-Wide Network of Islamic Schools and Creation of Chinese Islamic Knowledge; 7. Chinese Islamic Book Printing and China-Wide Circulation; 8. Forging Collective History and Memory of Sino-Muslims; 9. Shared Gender Discourse and Practice of Sino-Muslims; Conclusion; Index

Biography

Shaodan Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Center for Silk Road and Eurasian Civilization Studies at Xi’an International Studies University, China. Her research interests include late imperial Chinese history, Islam and Muslims in China. Her publications have appeared in Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Frontiers of History in China, and more.