A Narrative Approach to the Cultural Identification of Rural Migrant Muslim Students in Northwest China

• In Event: 29.090 - Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: 29.090-27 - National and International Perspectives: Race, Ethnicity, and Class

Abstract

Since Chinese economic reform in the 1980s that prompted increased urbanization, rural Hui people, as one of largest ethnic minority group in China, with almost 100 percent Islam belief, are migrating to urban places. Through narrative stories from 20 Muslim students from Lanzhou in northwest China, this study explored specifically on their experience regarding rural-urban differences, ethnicity and religion. It is found that 1) the rural migrant Muslim students have strongly attached rural identification, 2) Islam and its denominations play as fundamental maker of their identification, and 3) gender demonstrated salient differences on adaption to urban life. This study will help to generate general understandings of cultural experience, that can be used to study ethnic group transitions more extensively.

Author

• Tao Wang, University of Washington - Seattle