The square in Yinchuan is modern, but the streets leading off it are like the bazaars of the Arabian Nights. White-capped Hui (pronounced ‘Hwhey’) with dark beards vend their goods, while the women, veiled in black lace, move about their business silently.

Officially, there are over 11 million Hui in China – the third largest minority group of the 55 minority groups recognised in China. (Other, unofficial estimates put the Hui population as high as 20 million or more.)

As a minority people, the Hui enjoy many privileges not enjoyed by the majority Han people. They receive government subsidies for their comparatively expensive Muslim diet and are allowed more than one child.

Chinese Muslims are scattered throughout China, with the largest concentrations in their own autonomous province of Ningxia. There are also large communities in Gansu, Qinghai, Henan, Hebei, Yunnan, Shandong and Xinjiang provinces. Some of these provinces have Hui autonomous counties. They live side by side with the Chinese, but in their own tightly organised communities.

HISTORY AND CULTURE

The Hui are descendants of middle / central Asian Muslims who came to China as early as the 8th century. Many of these Muslims intermarried with the Han Chinese, and the newly amalgamated groups were called Huihui, or Hui.

There has been some intermarriage with Muslim immigrants over the years, giving them a few Turkic traits. The Hui are distinguished from the Han Chinese basically by their Islamic beliefs.

During the 1600s, the Manchurians rose to power and established the Qing Dynasty. There were large scale Hui rebellions, which resulted in the Hui being defeated by the Qing army. The oppression continued until 1949, when Mao Zedong gave the Hui minority status. Today, although relations between the Hui and the Han have seen some improvement, there are still many areas where there is a good deal of tension.

The Hui’s devotion to Islam shapes much of their everyday life, ranging from the way they worship, eat, and marry to funeral customs. They rarely intermarry with Han Chinese, since it would be very difficult for both parties.

Most Hui have adopted Chinese dress, but hold to Islamic traditions and can often be seen wearing their distinctive prayer hats. As Muslims they will not eat pork, but can eat beef – prepared according to Islamic dictates.

LANGUAGE

During the early period of their settlement in China, the Hui spoke Arabic. Most Hui speak their local dialect and educated Hui speak both the local dialect and Mandarin. A few, particularly the ‘ahong’, their religious teachers, can read Arabic. Among themselves, they still use some Persian or Arabic expressions in their speech.

LIVELIHOOD

In rural areas, the Hui make their living as farmers and travelling merchants – selling carpets, spices, copper, fruits and meat. The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region is famous for its production of wolfberry fruit, liquorice root, Helan stone, sheep skin and black moss.

In urban areas the Hui are shopkeepers, restaurant owners, craftsmen and factory workers, as well as scholars and religious leaders.

They are well known for their business acumen. In fact their interest in profitable business ventures led them to disperse across China.

RELIGION

The Hui hold strongly to the Islamic faith: about 90 per cent of them are Muslim. In fact Islam is called ‘Hui Jiao’ in Chinese, meaning ‘the Hui religion’.

As part of the international brotherhood of Islam, they can become militant when threatened. In an effort to placate them, the government has opened their mosques (even paying for their renovation) and has allowed large numbers of Muslims to join the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Although many urban Hui youth appear very nominal in their faith, there is presently an Islamic revival among the Hui.

CHRISTIANITY

While the Church in China has been growing in recent decades, there is little outreach to Hui Muslims. The Muslim heartland of southern Ningxia (the Hui Autonomous Region) has not been touched by the gospel. Being scattered throughout China, the Hui may be the most reachable of China’s 10 Islamic people groups because they are easily accessible to Chinese Christians.

However, the years of persecution have taken their toll on both sides. The Hui are untrusting and the Han Christians have little concern to reach them. Today there are about 75 known Hui Christians attending Han house churches. They are quite removed from their Hui roots and are not a significant factor in reaching the Hui.

Missionaries had been working among the Hui for 50 years before 1949, when China’s open century ended and the Communists established their rule over the whole of China.

The China Inland Mission (now OMF International) and its associate mission, the Scandinavian China Alliance Mission, were most involved in the Hui Autonomous Region of Ningxia. By 1949, a small but thriving church of 80 members was established in the province. However, even at that time, the Hui were slow to respond.

Since January 1991 there has been a daily 15-minute Hui radio programme, called Grace and Truth. Very little Christian literature using the Hui’s own religious terminology exists.

Today OMF still works among the Hui in China, enabling Christians with the right skills to serve the Hui and make a difference. The kinds of professionals needed for China include health care workers, livestock programme co-ordinators, doctors, nurses, ESL programme directors, TEFL teachers, secondary teachers, social workers, IT lecturers, entrepreneurs, dentists, occupational therapists, etc.

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