Features
12.30.20
‘Because There Were Cameras, I Didn’t Ask Any Questions’
Sometime in the summer of 2019, Vera Zhou, a young college student from the University of Washington, forgot to pretend that she was from the non-Muslim majority group in China, the Han. At a checkpoint at the mall, she put her ID on the scanner and...
Photo Gallery
02.21.20
‘They Feel Like They Can’t Go Home’
In September 2014, while waiting for access to photograph Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, a Chinese photographer who calls himself “Ali” came upon a large group of students from his home country at a local restaurant. He knew that many young Chinese...
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09.12.17China Jails Muslim Man for 2 Years over Islam WeChat Groups
South China Morning Post
A member of a Muslim minority group has been sentenced to two years in a Chinese prison after forming online discussions groups to teach Islam.
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12.14.16Popular Chinese Muslim Website Down After Posting Letter Critical of Xi
Reuters
Users of China Muslim Net say they have been unable to access the website since Saturday
Features
10.21.16
The Separation Between Mosque and State
Driving through the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province, in China’s northwest, minarets puncture the sky every few minutes. Many rise out of mosques that resemble Daoist temples, their details a blend of traditional Chinese and...
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10.10.16China's Other Muslims
Economist
By choosing assimilation, China’s Hui have become one of the world’s most successful Muslim minorities
Media
12.09.15
How to Say ‘Islamic State’ in Mandarin
On December 6, the Islamic State released a slick recording of a Mandarin Chinese-language song glorifying jihad, in what seems to be a direct attempt to recruit Chinese Muslims to the terrorist group’s cause. “Awaken, Muslim brothers! Now is the...
Media
07.21.15
China: The Best and the Worst Place to Be a Muslim Woman
A woman’s solitary voice, earthy and low, rises above the seated worshipers. More than 100 women stand, bow, and touch their foreheads to the floor as a female imam leads evening prayers at a women-only mosque during the first week of Islam’s holy...
Photo Gallery
12.30.14
Seeing China in 2014
In 2014, ChinaFile published great original work in photography. As always, we worked to look beyond stereotypical images of the country to find nuanced representations of the new and ChinaFile contributors’ commentary on it. Still, many of our...
Features
09.18.12
A Mosque of Their Own
The women of Sangpo know well they are the guardians of a 300-year-old custom that sets them apart in Islam and they are increasingly mindful that economic development could be that tradition’s undoing.Sangpo, a dusty hamlet about two hours from the...
Video
09.18.12
Last Call to Prayer
China’s Hui Muslims are unique in many respects. The country’s second-largest ethnic minority share linguistic and cultural ties with the majority in China that have allowed them to practice their religion with less interference and fewer...