Old Rebellions, New Minorities: Ma Family Leaders and Debates Over Communal Representation Following the Xinhai Rebellion, 1911

Abstract

Following the 1911 Xinhai Rebellion, the new leadership began to stress the fundamental unity of the peoples of the new Republic of China, even as newspaper commentaries foretold the need for separate Muslim representation as the only way to buy the participation of that constituency in the new state. Influential Chinese Muslim military leaders controlled much of the northwest; their participation in the new state was crucial to its survival. However, whilst the legacies of a nineteenth century process of minoritization meant it was often assumed Muslims would want either separate representation or independence, separate representation was never a cause the northwestern leadership truly espoused. Instead, although figures such as Ma Anliang, Ma Bufang and Ma Fuxiang were recognized unofficially as 'Muslim leaders', they promoted themselves as experts on other minorities, and as guardians of the integrity of the old, multi-ethnic space that had been the Qing empire. This article argues that in rejecting their own minoritization, the Chinese Muslim leaders sought to ensure the place of other minorities -Tibetan, Mongolian, Turkicin the emerging framework of the Chinese Nationalist state, often with great violence. Only then could they be afforded space within that new state as one minority among others. KEYWORDS Minoritization; Republican China; Islam in China; Ma family; Hui; legacies of empireThe world has evolved, and ten thousand teachings contend for supremacy. Even a household sect still must know how to strive in order to survive in the evolutionary world. (Li Qian) 1In 1918, Ma Tingrang, son of the most prominent Chinese Muslim military official in north western China, returned abruptly to his hometown and began to gather forces to his bannera move immediately seen by most observers as the precursor to a proclamation of Muslim independence. 2 Drawing on his grandfather's authority as an imam of near saint-like status, and his father's authority as unofficial leader of the Gansu Muslim establishment, Ma called local Muslim militias to his banner. Unfortunately for the would-be revolutionary, his father Ma Anliang heard news of his son's plans and