A Muslim Vision for the Chinese Nation: Chinese Pilgrimage Missions to Mecca during World War II

Abstract

In the late 1930s, three groups of Sino-Muslims went on hajj trips to Mecca. Two of them represented the Republic of China, while one represented the puppet government in Japanese-occupied North China. Reflecting the political importance of the Muslim population in the Sino-Japanese struggle, each group engaged in propaganda efforts for its government. However the Sino-Muslims who participated in these missions were not merely the passive pawns of Chinese authorities. Rather, archival material and published sources in Chinese and Arabic show that Sino-Muslims actively used these missions to advance a vision of the Chinese nation in which Muslims would play an important role in domestic and foreign affairs. This vision was based on a particular understanding of global politics which allowed Sino-Muslim elites to reconcile the transnational characteristic of Islam with loyalty to the territorially bound “Chinese nation.”

Who Are the Hui? A Necessary Footnote of Inconvenience

“…72 The opening of the coastal cities, however, meant that, in parallel to the Chinese "May Fourth" cultural movement (1910)(1911)(1912)(1913)(1914)(1915)(1916)(1917)(1918)(1919)(1920)(1921)(1922)(1923)(1924)(1925), eastern Hui intellectuals were quick to launch their own cultural revival movement. 73 Central to these Hui intellectuals' initiatives was the revival of their depressed Islamic learning and the education of their fellow Muslims in the ideas of modern statehood and scientific knowledge. From the year 1900 on, elite Hui Muslim families had been sending their children to Japan, an effort culminating in the establishment of the Association for Islamic Education in Tokyo (留東清真教育總會 Liudong qingzhen jiaoyu zonghui) in June 1907.…”

“People are God” Third World Internationalism and Chinese Muslims in the Making of the National Recognition in the 1950s

“…Two major ethnic groups are Hui and Uygur. Many recent studies have revealed the Chinese Muslims' active participation in the national salvation movements against the Japanese invasion (J. T. Chen, 2014;Mao, 2011).…”

Notes

“…61. For the best overview in English of this community and its relationship with the other ethnic groups in Lhasa, see Yeh, "Living Together in Lhasa"; Ma Jianye, "Xizang Lasa de Huimin, " 5:13b-16b; Yiwu, "Xizang Huimin, " 12 113. Chen Bo, "Lasa Musilin junti diaocha, " Xibei minzu yanjiu, 1, 2000: 89.…”