Being Hui Muslim in Xinjiang: Ethnic and Religious Identity of a Minority in a Minority Region

Yang Zhongdong, a visiting scholar at the University of South California, will give a talk on minority identity in Xinjiang at UCLA.

Professor Yang is from Xinjiang University’s School of Humanities. His academic training is in the field of ethnic minorities in China. He is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Southern California (USC). In the meantime, he is also pursuing his Ph.D. at Minzu University of China in Beijing. Born in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Yang is a member of the Hui ethnic minority group. As a scholar in Hui Studies, Professor Yang emphasizes the importance of the ethnological discipline in his research. His current research at USC involves comparing how religion and ethnicity shape the identity of Muslim minorities in the U.S.