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2021 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

7. Attracting the Arabs? Promoting ‘Muslim’ China to Boost Regional Development in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

Author : Jarmila Ptáčková

Published in: Transnational Sites of China’s Cultural Diplomacy

Publisher: Springer Singapore

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Abstract

On September 24, 2016, a caravan of twenty motorized vehicles left Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, to drive 11,000 km along the Silk Road from China to the Middle East: ‘An event entitled Driving along Silk Road, a Journey of China-Arab States Friendship aiming at promotion of cultural exchanges between China and the Arab States’ (China.org 2016).

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previous chapter Two Confucius Institutes and a Cross-Border University as Sites of China’s Cultural Diplomacy in Malaysia: The Limitations of ‘Domestic Structures’

next chapter China’s Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin: The Impact of Transnational and Local Actors

the additional research for this chapter was funded by the Lumina Quaeruntur fellowship of the Czech Academy of Sciences; the chapter is also a result of the Oriental Institute’s Power and Strategies of Social and Political Order research platform.

Sometimes translated also as ‘people-to-people bonds.’

In the 1950s, it was the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, particularly Urumqi, that was promoted as the ‘center of Islam in China’ in context of the Arab-oriented public diplomacy of China and during the organized tours for Arab delegates to China (Haddad-Fonda 2019, 26–27).

For security reasons, my informants in this chapter remain anonymous.

In 2013, it was renamed the China-Arab States Expo.

Personal interview with the Chinese Ministry of Culture, April 2016.

Translation according to the English Website of the Ningxia Opening-up Pilot Economic Zone (see Xinhua 2012).

After 2017, due to the accentuated affiliation to Arab culture, the Park of China’s Hui Muslim Culture lost the word ‘China’s’ (Zhonghua) in its title, the dance performances were cancelled, the Hui village was cleared, and tables emphasizing the link between the Chinese Muslims and the Arabs were removed from the museum. Other cultural facilities promoting the China-Arab link in Ningxia met with a similar fate. The China-Arab Axis, for example, has been completely rebuilt in ‘traditional Chinese’ style (situation in 2019).

The hall has been redecorated slightly since 2017 to make the originally intended association with Muslim symbolism less obvious.

According to the description in an information brochure on the project of the World Muslim City, entitled Zhong-A Wwenhua Cheng (China-Arab Culture Park). Received in August 2016.

Personal interviews with a member of Ningxia University and a member of the China-Arab States Entrepreneur Association, August 2016. Even though the Chinese policy stopped emphasizing possible links between the Chinese and Arab populations related to Islam and global Muslim culture, economic cooperation with the Middle East continues to be highly promoted. The China-Arab Expo continues to take place in Yinchuan every two years.

See also the promotion video Wisdom house Arabic version on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzBejXOMn6M.

Personal interview with the leader of the Wisdom House Company, August 2016.

I would like to thank Giedre Sabaseviciute for her kind help with the transliteration of the Arab titles.

Personal interview with the director of the International College for Arab Language Training, August 2016.

Personal interview with an employee of the China-Arab Joy Camp, August 2016. After 2017, like many other institutions, the China-Arab Cultural City and China-Arab Joy Camp both removed the ‘China-Arab’ from their title. In 2019, both places stood empty, having closed down.

Personal Interview with a member of the Ningxia International Halal Food Certification, August 2016.

Arabic has been banned completely from public spaces and many architectural sites with Arab characteristics were removed since 2017.

Arabs are also among the ancestors of today’s Hui in China, but due to the long history of interaction with Han and other ethnic groups and non-Arabic speakers within the Chinese territory, knowledge of the Arab language disappeared among the majority of the Hui. It can be used for religious purposes, but is certainly not the language of daily use (see also Ding and Zhang 2002).

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Title: Attracting the Arabs? Promoting ‘Muslim’ China to Boost Regional Development in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region
Author: Jarmila Ptáčková
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Book: Transnational Sites of China’s Cultural Diplomacy
Print ISBN: 978-981-15-5591-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-981-15-5592-3

Copyright Year: 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5592-3_7