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Being Hui Muslim in Xinjiang: Ethnic and Religious Identity of a Minority in a Minority Region

A lecture by Yang Zhongdong, Xinjiang University

Thursday, October 28, 2010
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
10367 Bunche Hall
Los Angeles, CA United States

Professor Yang's research focus is contemporary Muslim communities in Xinjiang Province. Born in Urumqi, the region’s capital, Professor Yang is a Hui, a Muslim ethnic minority. This background helped inspire his study of the history and the culture of Xinjiang. As a scholar in Hui Studies, a fairly new discipline, Professor Yang emphasizes the importance of the ethnological discipline in his research. Ethnology, according to Professor Yang, incorporates a large amount of fieldwork that is essential to studying one specific ethnicity. The diversity of China dictates that an ethnological approach to studying the Xinjiang people is indispensible. His current research in Los Angeles involves comparing how religion and ethnicity shape the identity of Muslim minorities in the U.S. and China.

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies, Asia Institute, Center for the Study of Religion