Hui

族About this people

The Hui are unique among China's ethnic minorities in that they are defined primarily by religion — Sunni Islamic practice — and origin rather than by a separate language. Most Hui speak the regional Chinese dialect of the area where they live, though Islamic vocabulary from Arabic and Persian permeates daily life and religious education. Their ancestors include Arab and Persian merchants who traded along the maritime and overland Silk Roads from the Tang dynasty (7th century) onward, soldiers of Central Asian origin who settled under Mongol rule in the 13th century, and local converts.

Because Hui communities exist in virtually every province of China, Hui culture is highly diverse. The Hui of Ningxia maintain a concentrated homeland where the Xin Yue and Nanguan mosques of Yinchuan are major religious centres. Those of Yunnan (the Dian Hui) have a distinct cuisine and architectural tradition. Gansu and Qinghai Hui communities include adherents of Sufi orders (particularly the Naqshbandiyya and Qadiriyya), with important tomb-shrines (gongbei) at Linxia, sometimes called "the Mecca of China."

Hui cuisine is well known across China: Lanzhou beef noodles (lamian), niurou (halal beef preparations), and the roasted lamb skewers and flatbreads of the northwest are associated with Hui cooking. The absence of pork and restrictions on alcohol shape Hui domestic and restaurant culture. Mosque architecture in northwest China blends Arabic domed forms with Chinese-style rooflines and interior woodwork in a distinctive synthesis.