Maja Veselic Current Project Maja Veselic Curriculum Vitae Current Project Between "Society" and "Religious" Knowledge: Negotiating Hui Ethno-Religious Identity through Education This project looks at the impact of the PRC's modernization reforms in general and its educational policies in particular on the ethno-religious identitifications of Hui youth. In theory, the special minority policies were designed with the purpose of equal inclusion of socially and economically marginal groups. In practice, however, social mobility increasingly depends on Han cultural capital as Chinese society is undergoes rapid changes. This research thus focuses on how state ideas of minority education are reworked and re-interpreted by various actors who put them in practice or who are supposed to benefit from them. Hui (Huizu) is one of the 55 state recognized minority nationalities (shaoshu minzu), and one of the first which have been granted this status in the the PRC government sponsored project of ethnic identification and classification in the 1950s. The nationlities were supposed to be defined by Stalin's four criteria of a nation, but Hui defy them: they are scattered throughout the country and speak local dialects of Chinese or in few cases other local languages. The one thing they did have in common was that they were Muslim. Actually, in imperial times the name Hui denoted all Muslims who lived in China or, more narrowly Chinese-speaking Muslims. Prior to the Republican period Hui had few insitutional connections except for trading and religious teacher-disciple networks. These, however, were especially well-knit in the Northwestern China where Hui are numerous. As many researchers have observed, the religious opression during Cultural revolution and state imposition of nationality categories resulted in new types of identifications, which were given saliency through benefits of preferential policies for minorities. Now Hui, too, increasingly see

themselves as an ethnic group. On the other hand, China's reforms since the end of 1970's again opened up space for religious activities, so a new surge in Islamic practices can be observed. This is, for example, reflected in the increasing popularity of religious or semi-religious education. In addition to regular schools and minority schools which are funded by state, many private Sino-Arabic secondary schools have sprung up in the last two decades. Besides religious subjects and Arabic their curriculum sometimes includes English, computer or some vocational classes. Only some of these schools are directly associated with mosques, although most of them are built in their vicinity. Among university students, too, the popularity of Arabic and Koranic courses is growing. Hui students and teachers of the Northwestern University for Nationalities organize weekly study trips to mosques, Sino-Arabic schools and other universities to learn about Islam and  the  history of  Hui.  Nevertheless,  Muslim  students  of Young married women and teenage girls struggle with Arabic during daily morning class (Qinghai). other ethnic backgrounds seldom take part in these activities. Moreover, despite official limitations on traditional mosque education, the number of disciples in mosques has been constantly rising. Recently appeals have been made by some educated Hui for its modernization, suggesting that Chinese languge courses should be included in the curriculum besides Arabic and Persian. How should this increase in religious schooling be understood? Is it merely an extension of the traditional mosque education, albeit much more inclusive, especially for girls and women? Is it a way for Hui to partake in modernization through education that is promoted by the government, but many people in the Northwest cannot afford? Or can it be seen as an alternative (but also global) vision of modernity in a country which pays little attention to minorities' own visions of progress and development? School-attending boys enacting for the villagers what they have learned during a winter holiday course organized by the local mosque (Gansu). In order to answer these questions, a total of 14 months of fieldwork has been carried out from September 2005 until March 2007 in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, mostly in the city of Lanzhou. During the 3-month stay at MPI as Marie Curie SocAnth Fellow (from April to June 2007) I will start writing up my dissertation. There are interesting points of comparison with much of the past and present research conducted at the Institute, especially with projects on the 'postsocialist religious question' in Central Asia and Central-East Europe.