Language learning series for advanced students
pictures from http://islaminchina.wordpress.com/
Funded by
 UH National Foreign Language Resource Center
 UH National Resource Center for East Asian Studies
 Confucius Institute at UHM
Plan:
 Travel to points along China’s “Quran Belt” and film 6-
10 interviews with Chinese Muslims, intercut the
interviews with b-roll footage of the setting and
community, and edit into 10- to 15-minute segments to
upload to the CI-UHM website (linked to NFLRC site).
 Develop and upload downloadable lessons in pdf
format to accompany the segments.
Projected dates
 Shoot: Mid- to late- May to early June; 2-3 weeks,
depending on how long we can stretch out our
budget
 Editing and development of lessons: Fall, 2011, and
Spring, 2012
 Upload by the end of Spring semester, 2012
The route:
Beijing: Central
Nationalities U;
Niu Street mosque…
Train to Kaifeng (Henan),
Dunhuang (Gansu),
[stop in Ningxia, Gansu]
and Urumqi (Xinjiang)…
Buses within Xinjiang to
Turfan, Kashgar…
Minivan within each city
Fly back to Beijing
The interviewer:
LI Jinzhao
Assistant professor,
Beijing Foreign Studies
University
PhD 2005, American
Studies, UHM
Specialist in ethnic
identity issues
The interview questions:
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Who are the Chinese Muslims?
Formation of Muslim identity
How did you learn to be Muslim, through parents,
kinship, schools, community?
When did you first become aware of your Muslim
identity?
Tell me about the neighborhood you grew up in.
Tell me about the school you attended.
Who were your closest friends?
Current lifestyle and current identity
Compared to your childhood experience, is your life
now more or less “Muslim”?
What is your everyday life like now?
What do you experience Muslim culture and
tradition in everyday practice?
What do you think about?
Whom do you date?
What does it mean to be a Muslim?
How many kinds of Muslims have you met in China?
What does it mean to be a Muslim in China?
How do non-Muslim Chinese perceive you?
Do you like/dislike how you are perceived?
How have these perceptions changed over time?
How active are you in your Muslim communities?
Thinking about the future
What plans do you have for your future?
What are your primary concerns when you think
about the future?
What are your expectations for future generations?
What do you kind of future do you want to see for
Muslims in China?
The filmmaker
Eric Gustafson
CNN, ESPN,
Warner Brothers,
Spike TV
Videographer,
editor, producer
The language
specialist
Cynthia Ning
author:
•Communicating in
Chinese (year 1)
•Exploring in Chinese
(year 2; with DVD)
•Encounters: Chinese
Language & Culture
(year 1; with feature
film, documentary,
website)
all from Yale U Press
Possibly accompanied by (NRCEA)
 Kuang-tien Yao,
 James Frankel,
 UH China librarian, on
 UH Assistant Professor,
an acquisitions trip
focusing on Chinese
Muslims
Religion, specialist on
Islam in China, looking
to develop a new course
Actual route 5.16–6.3.2011
 2 days in Beijing, fly to Urumqi/X—1 day
 Fly to Kashgar/X—2 days
 Fly through Urumqi to Turpan/X—1 day
 Overnight train to Dunhuang/G, evening train to
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Jiayuguan/G
Evening flight to Lanzhou/G, sunset drive to Linxia/G
Evening return to Lanzhou, train to Xining/Q— 1 day
Overnight train to Yinchuan/N— 1 day
Afternoon flight to Xi’an; 1 day
Morning flight to Beijing; 1 day
Basic demographics
 Muslim population = 1.5% of total, about 20 million
 Xinjiang A.R. (Urumqi): 22 million population
Uighur (45%), Han (41%), Kazakh (7%),
Hui (5%), Kyrgyz (1%), Mongol (1%)…
 Gansu Pr. (Lanzhou): 26 million population
Han (91%), Hui (5%), Dongxiang (2%), Tibetan
(2%)
Linxia Hui A.Pref. —2 million population
 Qinghai Pr. (Xining): 6 million population
Han (54%), Tibetan (21%), Hui (16%),
Tu (4%), Salar (2%), Mongol (2%)
 Ningxia Hui A.R. (Yinchuan): 6 million population
Han (62%), Hui (34%)
Challenges
Chinese-style political rules
by Michael Zhang, president, Blue Hawaii Lifestyle and Blue Hawaii Surf
•There are some things you can both say and do.
•There are some things you can say but you can't do now
(or maybe ever).
•There are some things you can't say but you can do.
•There are some things you can never either say or do.
Hao Ping, UH-CCS alumnus
PRC Vice Minister of Education