Jing Wang - New Bridge along the Silk Road or Old Connection Revived: On the Transnational Connectivity among the Sinophone Muslims in China and Central Asia

Presentation about the connections formed between Muslims in China.

Since 2013, the official media at state and local levels have been portraying the Dungans as the “bridge” (qiao liang) between China and Central Asia. But the role of Dungans as a “new bridge” did not begin in the 2010s. Beyond the political fanfare of the Road and Belt Initiative, the contemporary Dungan connection with China, which started in the late 1980s and early 1990s, deserves further exploration. Drawing upon multi-sited fieldwork, this presentation will look at the often-overlooked stories of the transnational and trans-regional connection between the Sinophone Muslims, i.e., the Dungans in Central Asia and the Hui Muslims in China. More specifically, I will explore 1) how the “old” connection has been “revived” since the 1990s between the Shaanxi Dungans in Kazakhstan and the Hui Muslims in Shaanxi; and 2) how the “new” connection between Gansu and the Dungans from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan has been “created” since the 2010s through the state-sponsored programs. By comparing different localities and narratives, my study offers a nuanced analysis of the dynamic modes of transnational mobility that constantly evolves between the post-Soviet Central Asia and late-socialist China.