February 23, 2006
linxia in nytimes
my friend michael's blog typically does this routine of quoting and posting recent news articles about china, then offering a tiny bit of commentary combined with lots of cross-links to personal content. since he's on vacation in california this week, i'll give it a try in his stead.
there was a recent piece in the new york times about Linxia, in Gansu province (A Spectator's Role for China's Muslims). in it, the author describes being struck by "the unabashed public display of Islam:" men with white caps, women in scarves, and minarets overhead, oh my!
michael and i passed through Linxia on our way to Xiahe last month, and we weren't very surprised by all white caps. that's just what Hui people look like! lots of Chinese cities have a Muslim area full of white-capped men (like Xi'an, for instance). admittedly, after spending time in Xinjiang, mosques weren't much of a surprise anymore, either. i'll also admit we only stopped in Linxia long enough to take this picture of a man tying a chicken to his bicycle, and not long enough to learn that the town was the "center of Islam" in central China. that certainly explains why it seemed like we'd pass a new mosque every five minutes. (none of the mosques, though, were as shiny and nice as this arab-funded one along the mekong i happened upon in a Cham village.)
anyway, the article continues on to talk about how the Hui aren't as "completely assimilated" and "indistinguishable" from regular Han Chinese as the Lonely Planet guide suggests. still, the most fun i had among the muslims of China involved drinking and dancing to Central Asian music at the Uighur disco, both activities forbidden under strict Islamic law -- so i don't foresee a breakaway theocracy in western China's future. nevertheless the article makes for an interesting read.