Women's Stories, Discourse, and “the Power of Feelings” in China: A Case from a Muslim Neighborhood

Gillette, Maris Boyd

doi:10.1080/1683478x.2006.10552558

Cited by 1 publication

(4 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The Muslim district differed from other parts of Xi'an in some of its characteristic occupational, marital, educational, and residential patterns (see Gillette 2000), but for most Xi'an urbanites, the relevant distinction was one of "nationality" (minzu). Han Chinese are the dominant nationality in China, making up about 94 percent of the population, while the Hui are one of fifty-five "minority nationalities" (shaoshu minzu), all of which together compose the remaining 6 percent.…”

Section: The Xi'an Muslim Community and The Hui "Nationality"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Religion also informs the Han choice of punishment for the Hui boys who broke the village pact: the Han villagers tie the boys up with a pig, playing on the Islamic pork taboo and Hui revulsion toward pigs (see Gillette 2000;Gladney 1991;Pillsbury 1976). The Hui believe in God, whereas the Han believe in spirits.…”

Section: Story One: a Fight At The Operamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Religious differences keep the Hui villagers from contributing to the rainmaking ceremony and the subsequent festival. Religion also informs the Han choice of punishment for the Hui boys who broke the village pact: the Han villagers tie the boys up with a pig, playing on the Islamic pork taboo and Hui revulsion toward pigs (see Gillette 2000;Gladney 1991;Pillsbury 1976).…”

Section: Story One: a Fight At The Operamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this story, Hui Cheng'ao, like Ma Jiqing, attributes the escalation in violence to state intervention. He goes even further in depicting Zhang Fei's immorality: Zhang's mother's suicide is the most powerful protest against wrong behavior that a woman in late imperial China could make (see Gillette 2006).…”

Section: Story One: a Fight At The Operamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Violence, the State, and a Chinese Muslim Ritual Remembrance

Gillette¹

2008

JAS

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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.

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Section: The Xi'an Muslim Community and The Hui "Nationality"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Story One: a Fight At The Operamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Story One: a Fight At The Operamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Story One: a Fight At The Operamentioning

confidence: 99%

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