Two Chinas, Two Chinese Islams?

Abstract

Muslim leaders in China experienced political and social fracture and intellectual reorientation as a result of the Chinese Civil War (1945–49) and the early Cold War. Influential Chinese Muslim and Uyghur imams and officials who were once allies and friends found themselves on opposite sides of several conflicts: the bitter struggle between Nationalists (KMT) and Communists (CCP), the formation of opposing states on the mainland and Taiwan, and the broader US-Soviet rivalry. The first section of this article shows how Muslims from China catalyzed multiple inter-Asian linkages in the early Cold War. The second and third sections explore the intellectual impact of the Chinese Civil War and Cold War on discourses of Chinese Muslim identity and inter-Asian connections, focusing on ethnicization and racialization.