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Hui Neighborhoods “Sinicized,” Spreading Fear Among Residents
08/10/2019MA XIAGU
Buildings in traditional Islamic style and any signs with relevance to Muslim faith are disappearing from areas inhabited by China’s Hui Muslims.
by Ma Xiagu
A public square loses all Islamic characteristics
Dongguan Village
(村). The basic unity of the administrative division of China, normally found in rural areas, where several villages constitute a township. Formally village-level division (村級行政區), the sixth tier of the administrative division. The management agency for a village is the village committee (村民委員會, or simply 村委會).
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">village, located in Longnan city in the northwestern Province
(省). A part of the administrative division of China at the highest, provincial level. China includes 22 provinces (although sometimes the government mentions 23, by adding Taiwan).
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">province of Gansu, is inhabited predominantly by Hui
(回族). Recognized by the CCP and the government as an “ethnic” minority, they are in fact a religious group, which includes those Muslims who are ethnically Han Chinese and speak various forms of the Chinese language, unlike the Uyghurs and the Ethnic Kazakhs, who are also Muslim Chinese citizens but are not ethnically Chinese and speak languages other than Chinese. There are between eight and ten million Hui, distributed all over China, although prevalently in the northwestern part of the country. Hailed for decades by the CCP as the “good” Chinese Muslims, opposed to the “bad” Uyghurs, they have also been victims of the recent crackdown on religion and started organizing manifestations of protest.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">Hui Muslims. The village’s Dongguan Muslim Square is a popular place for residents to relax.
A dome-shaped building in Dongguan Muslim Square has been converted into Chinese-style pavilion.
Last October, Islamic-style buildings in the middle of the square were dismantled under orders by the government. Anything bearing Islamic symbols – including the signs in Arabic in the middle of the square and Islamic religious rules engraved on the perimeter wall – have been removed in the period of three days.
The word “Muslim” has been removed from the name of the square, leaving only Dongguan Square.
The name has been changed to Dongguan Square, and two Islamic-style buildings in the square have been “sinicized,” changing their appearance to Chinese-style pavilions. Islamic religious tenets that were originally displayed on the perimeter wall have been replaced with communist propaganda.
The dome-shaped buildings in Dongguan Muslim Square now look like Chinese-style pavilions:
“After seeing the square transformed, I couldn’t sleep for two nights. I’m scared thinking about what will happen to us Hui people in the future,” a villager commented on the makeover of the square.
Communist propaganda has replaced the Islamic tenets on the perimeter wall of Dongguan Muslim Square.
On Minzu Road in Xifeng District
(市轄區). An administrative unit at the same level of a county, but normally located within a municipality or a prefecture-level city.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">district of Gansu’s Qingyang city, numerous signboards in Arabic and ethnic Hui characteristics used to be displayed on the part of the road called Halal Food Street. They recently have been replaced with signs written uniformly in Chinese characters against a green background.
Signboards bearing ethnic Hui characteristics have been uniformly replaced with signboards written in Chinese characters against a green background on Halal Food Street in Qingyang city
“Officials from the city’s United Front Work Department
(UFWD 統戰部). An intelligence agency established by the CCP authorities, it is used to gather information about and manage relations with democratic parties, intellectuals, dissenters, academics, religious and ethnic groups, and other individuals of influence, like business people, that are not directly associated with the Party inside China and abroad. Its main aim is to eliminate anti-communist forces or incite anyone outside the Party to support the CCP and its government. UFWD supervises nine internal bureaus, and among them, the second bureau is responsible for dealing with religious affairs; the seventh is in charge of Tibet-related matters, and the ninth deals with Xinjiang. UFWD also administers the five officially-sanctioned religious organizations.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">United Front Work Department, Civil Affairs Bureau, and Religious Affairs Bureau, as well as Xijie Subdistrict Office came to the neighborhood to tell us that the Township
(鄉). A part of the fourth-tier Township Level of the administrative division of China, it normally indicates a rural commune consisting of several sub-units, each of which is called a village.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">township government is focusing on this street. Government officials brought people to replace the signs quickly,” said a shop assistant. “The Communist Party fears that if there are more of us who believe in Islam, we won’t obey the Communist Party and will subvert the state.”
A Hui street located in the Yuanjia village tourist attraction of Xianyang city, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, also ran into misfortune. A subdistrict management official told Bitter Winter that apart from demanding the removal of Arabic lettering and religious symbols at the main entrance to the street, even shopping bags for customers are not allowed to bear the Arabic words for “halal.”
Hui people live in an atmosphere of intense fear
Last September, Islamic symbols were forcibly removed from the entrance to a mosque in Huating County
(縣). The oldest and most common unit in the administrative division of China, part of the third-tier County Level. Some 1,400 counties exist today in China.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">county, under the jurisdiction of Gansu’s Pingliang city. In the eyes of Hui residents, the removal of symbols means even more disastrous times ahead. “Looking at the current trend, perhaps the CCP
It stands for Chinese Communist Party, which from 1949 controls all social and political life in China. Members of CCP should in principle be self-proclaimed atheists. The ultimate goal of CCP is suppression of religion. However, how this goal is achieved has varied during time, and after Chairman Mao’s death the CCP has acknowledged that, notwithstanding its efforts, religions may survive in China for a long time.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">CCP will tear down all of the Hui people’s mosques in the future,” a local Muslim expressed a general feeling of residents in the area.
The entrance to a mosque in Huating county before and after its Islamic symbols were dismantled.
In July last year, the local government raised the national flag at the mosque; and before prayers, CCP’s policies are promoted. The Arabic language for worshiping is forbidden; everyone must pray in Chinese.
Some residents of Pingliang expressed to Bitter Winter their worries that the restrictions on and persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang
(新疆, officially the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). The “autonomous” region of China whose largest ethnic group is Uyghurs, with another 7% of Ethnic Kazakhs, and Islam as the majority religion. The World Uyghur Congress and other Uyghur organizations do not accept the name Xinjiang, which means “New Frontier” or “New Borderland” and was imposed by Imperial China in 1884, after it conquered or rather reconquered the region, that it had already occupied between 1760 and 1860. Uyghurs prefer the name “East Turkestan,” which was also used by two ephemeral independent states, known as the First (1933) and the Second (1944–49) East Turkestan Republics. In order to avoid the choice between “Xinjiang” and “East Turkestan,” both problematic designations, American scholar Rian Thum suggested to adopt the ancient name of the region, Altishahr (“Six Cities”), which is however rarely used outside of scholarly circles.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">Xinjiang, such as the requirement for women to remove their headscarves or prohibitions on fasting during Ramada, may soon be implemented in Gansu. One of the interviewed persons mentioned that he had heard stories from Xinjiang of mineral water and sunflower seeds or other snacks placed at the entrance to work units for Hui workers to consume during the periods of fasting. Those who don’t are punished.
Another resident added that every Hui household in Xinjiang is subjected to surveillance by personnel from of fanghuijug – an acronym for Visit the People, Benefit the People, and Get Together the Hearts of the People – government-established teams that visit the homes of the Muslim population of Xinjiang to gather data on them. “They say that this is ‘eating together, residing together, and living together with the Hui people.’ In reality, they’re monitoring everything that Hui people say and do,” the man said, referring to the so-called “stay-home” program implemented in Xinjiang.
Islam-related shop names replaced
Ethnic Hui residents in the northeastern province of Jilin are facing a hard time, too. Among the imposed restrictions is the requirement to change the names of the shops that they operate.
“Islamic Hot Pot City” is an old restaurant, opened more than 20 years ago in Yanji city. In March, the local government demanded to remove the three Chinese characters for “Islamic,” and the restaurant is now called “Huihuiying Hot Pot City.”
The restaurant “Islamic Hot Pot City” has been ordered to be changed to “Huihuiying Hot Pot City.”
A signboard “Islamic [Yīsīlán] Dream Wedding Dresses and Photography” in Jilin city’s Chuanying district was replaced with “Yīlán Dream Wedding Dresses and Photography” by removing the second character of the Chinese word for “Islam.”
“Islamic Dream Wedding Dresses and Photography” has become “Yīlán Dream Wedding Dresses and Photography” after the government’s intervention.
For the same reason, “Muslim [Mùsīlín] Barbecue” in Changchun city was changed to “Sīlín Barbecue,” removing the first character in the Chinese word for “Muslim.” Soon after, the two Chinese characters Sīlín were also prohibited. In the end, the owner had no choice but to change the signboard to read “Large Pieces of Meat Barbecue.”
“Muslim Barbecue” has been renamed to “Large Pieces of Meat Barbecue.”
A shop owner told Bitter Winter that the government prohibited him from having words like “Muslim,” “Islamic,” and “halal” in the name of his shop. “Islamabad [Yīsīlánbǎo] Restaurant” in Jilin city has been changed to Yīxiānglánbǎo because the government doesn’t allow names that bear particularly strong ethnic
https://bitterwinter.org/hui-neighborhoods-transformed/
08/10/2019MA XIAGU
Buildings in traditional Islamic style and any signs with relevance to Muslim faith are disappearing from areas inhabited by China’s Hui Muslims.
by Ma Xiagu
A public square loses all Islamic characteristics
Dongguan Village
(村). The basic unity of the administrative division of China, normally found in rural areas, where several villages constitute a township. Formally village-level division (村級行政區), the sixth tier of the administrative division. The management agency for a village is the village committee (村民委員會, or simply 村委會).
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">village, located in Longnan city in the northwestern Province
(省). A part of the administrative division of China at the highest, provincial level. China includes 22 provinces (although sometimes the government mentions 23, by adding Taiwan).
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">province of Gansu, is inhabited predominantly by Hui
(回族). Recognized by the CCP and the government as an “ethnic” minority, they are in fact a religious group, which includes those Muslims who are ethnically Han Chinese and speak various forms of the Chinese language, unlike the Uyghurs and the Ethnic Kazakhs, who are also Muslim Chinese citizens but are not ethnically Chinese and speak languages other than Chinese. There are between eight and ten million Hui, distributed all over China, although prevalently in the northwestern part of the country. Hailed for decades by the CCP as the “good” Chinese Muslims, opposed to the “bad” Uyghurs, they have also been victims of the recent crackdown on religion and started organizing manifestations of protest.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">Hui Muslims. The village’s Dongguan Muslim Square is a popular place for residents to relax.
A dome-shaped building in Dongguan Muslim Square has been converted into Chinese-style pavilion.
Last October, Islamic-style buildings in the middle of the square were dismantled under orders by the government. Anything bearing Islamic symbols – including the signs in Arabic in the middle of the square and Islamic religious rules engraved on the perimeter wall – have been removed in the period of three days.
The word “Muslim” has been removed from the name of the square, leaving only Dongguan Square.
The name has been changed to Dongguan Square, and two Islamic-style buildings in the square have been “sinicized,” changing their appearance to Chinese-style pavilions. Islamic religious tenets that were originally displayed on the perimeter wall have been replaced with communist propaganda.
The dome-shaped buildings in Dongguan Muslim Square now look like Chinese-style pavilions:
“After seeing the square transformed, I couldn’t sleep for two nights. I’m scared thinking about what will happen to us Hui people in the future,” a villager commented on the makeover of the square.
Communist propaganda has replaced the Islamic tenets on the perimeter wall of Dongguan Muslim Square.
On Minzu Road in Xifeng District
(市轄區). An administrative unit at the same level of a county, but normally located within a municipality or a prefecture-level city.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">district of Gansu’s Qingyang city, numerous signboards in Arabic and ethnic Hui characteristics used to be displayed on the part of the road called Halal Food Street. They recently have been replaced with signs written uniformly in Chinese characters against a green background.
Signboards bearing ethnic Hui characteristics have been uniformly replaced with signboards written in Chinese characters against a green background on Halal Food Street in Qingyang city
“Officials from the city’s United Front Work Department
(UFWD 統戰部). An intelligence agency established by the CCP authorities, it is used to gather information about and manage relations with democratic parties, intellectuals, dissenters, academics, religious and ethnic groups, and other individuals of influence, like business people, that are not directly associated with the Party inside China and abroad. Its main aim is to eliminate anti-communist forces or incite anyone outside the Party to support the CCP and its government. UFWD supervises nine internal bureaus, and among them, the second bureau is responsible for dealing with religious affairs; the seventh is in charge of Tibet-related matters, and the ninth deals with Xinjiang. UFWD also administers the five officially-sanctioned religious organizations.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">United Front Work Department, Civil Affairs Bureau, and Religious Affairs Bureau, as well as Xijie Subdistrict Office came to the neighborhood to tell us that the Township
(鄉). A part of the fourth-tier Township Level of the administrative division of China, it normally indicates a rural commune consisting of several sub-units, each of which is called a village.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">township government is focusing on this street. Government officials brought people to replace the signs quickly,” said a shop assistant. “The Communist Party fears that if there are more of us who believe in Islam, we won’t obey the Communist Party and will subvert the state.”
A Hui street located in the Yuanjia village tourist attraction of Xianyang city, in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, also ran into misfortune. A subdistrict management official told Bitter Winter that apart from demanding the removal of Arabic lettering and religious symbols at the main entrance to the street, even shopping bags for customers are not allowed to bear the Arabic words for “halal.”
Hui people live in an atmosphere of intense fear
Last September, Islamic symbols were forcibly removed from the entrance to a mosque in Huating County
(縣). The oldest and most common unit in the administrative division of China, part of the third-tier County Level. Some 1,400 counties exist today in China.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">county, under the jurisdiction of Gansu’s Pingliang city. In the eyes of Hui residents, the removal of symbols means even more disastrous times ahead. “Looking at the current trend, perhaps the CCP
It stands for Chinese Communist Party, which from 1949 controls all social and political life in China. Members of CCP should in principle be self-proclaimed atheists. The ultimate goal of CCP is suppression of religion. However, how this goal is achieved has varied during time, and after Chairman Mao’s death the CCP has acknowledged that, notwithstanding its efforts, religions may survive in China for a long time.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">CCP will tear down all of the Hui people’s mosques in the future,” a local Muslim expressed a general feeling of residents in the area.
The entrance to a mosque in Huating county before and after its Islamic symbols were dismantled.
In July last year, the local government raised the national flag at the mosque; and before prayers, CCP’s policies are promoted. The Arabic language for worshiping is forbidden; everyone must pray in Chinese.
Some residents of Pingliang expressed to Bitter Winter their worries that the restrictions on and persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang
(新疆, officially the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). The “autonomous” region of China whose largest ethnic group is Uyghurs, with another 7% of Ethnic Kazakhs, and Islam as the majority religion. The World Uyghur Congress and other Uyghur organizations do not accept the name Xinjiang, which means “New Frontier” or “New Borderland” and was imposed by Imperial China in 1884, after it conquered or rather reconquered the region, that it had already occupied between 1760 and 1860. Uyghurs prefer the name “East Turkestan,” which was also used by two ephemeral independent states, known as the First (1933) and the Second (1944–49) East Turkestan Republics. In order to avoid the choice between “Xinjiang” and “East Turkestan,” both problematic designations, American scholar Rian Thum suggested to adopt the ancient name of the region, Altishahr (“Six Cities”), which is however rarely used outside of scholarly circles.
" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s; color: rgb(221, 51, 51) !important; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(221, 51, 51) !important;">Xinjiang, such as the requirement for women to remove their headscarves or prohibitions on fasting during Ramada, may soon be implemented in Gansu. One of the interviewed persons mentioned that he had heard stories from Xinjiang of mineral water and sunflower seeds or other snacks placed at the entrance to work units for Hui workers to consume during the periods of fasting. Those who don’t are punished.
Another resident added that every Hui household in Xinjiang is subjected to surveillance by personnel from of fanghuijug – an acronym for Visit the People, Benefit the People, and Get Together the Hearts of the People – government-established teams that visit the homes of the Muslim population of Xinjiang to gather data on them. “They say that this is ‘eating together, residing together, and living together with the Hui people.’ In reality, they’re monitoring everything that Hui people say and do,” the man said, referring to the so-called “stay-home” program implemented in Xinjiang.
Islam-related shop names replaced
Ethnic Hui residents in the northeastern province of Jilin are facing a hard time, too. Among the imposed restrictions is the requirement to change the names of the shops that they operate.
“Islamic Hot Pot City” is an old restaurant, opened more than 20 years ago in Yanji city. In March, the local government demanded to remove the three Chinese characters for “Islamic,” and the restaurant is now called “Huihuiying Hot Pot City.”
The restaurant “Islamic Hot Pot City” has been ordered to be changed to “Huihuiying Hot Pot City.”
A signboard “Islamic [Yīsīlán] Dream Wedding Dresses and Photography” in Jilin city’s Chuanying district was replaced with “Yīlán Dream Wedding Dresses and Photography” by removing the second character of the Chinese word for “Islam.”
“Islamic Dream Wedding Dresses and Photography” has become “Yīlán Dream Wedding Dresses and Photography” after the government’s intervention.
For the same reason, “Muslim [Mùsīlín] Barbecue” in Changchun city was changed to “Sīlín Barbecue,” removing the first character in the Chinese word for “Muslim.” Soon after, the two Chinese characters Sīlín were also prohibited. In the end, the owner had no choice but to change the signboard to read “Large Pieces of Meat Barbecue.”
“Muslim Barbecue” has been renamed to “Large Pieces of Meat Barbecue.”
A shop owner told Bitter Winter that the government prohibited him from having words like “Muslim,” “Islamic,” and “halal” in the name of his shop. “Islamabad [Yīsīlánbǎo] Restaurant” in Jilin city has been changed to Yīxiānglánbǎo because the government doesn’t allow names that bear particularly strong ethnic
https://bitterwinter.org/hui-neighborhoods-transformed/
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