Wang, Haichao;
(2025)
Tradition in Transition: Urban Hui Muslims and Digital Dynamics in Contemporary China.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
This thesis seeks to repudiate the assumption that tradition is a largely conservative force that seeks to limit, or has become incompatible with modernizing forces, typified today by digital technologies, or previously by capitalism and consumerism. A view particularly pertinent to Hui Muslim community in central Xi’an city in northwest China whose identity is associated with an ideal of preserved Islamic tradition. Certainly, alongside the hypermobile Chinese society, a ubiquitous presence of the digital has transformed the Chinese forms of presence and sociality significantly, with the potential to make China the vanguard of modernity as desired by the party-state. Nevertheless, my doctorial research, based on two years participatory observations within this urban Chinese Hui Muslim community, has revealed a different and nuanced picture. It not only found an entirely different concept and use of “tradition” than expected but also that the digital has been generally employed as the means for retaining those meanings and values. The underlying factor is Chinese Hui Muslim’s consciousness of multi-source reasoning that were developed over the longue durée of Islam in China.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Tradition in Transition: Urban Hui Muslims and Digital Dynamics in Contemporary China |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10206300 |
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