Muslim Transnationalism in Modern China

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Muslim Transnationalism in Modern China provides a portrait of underrecognized reformists who aimed to turn Muslim subjects into active Chinese citizens and revive “true” Islam in order to aid China’s development and promote peace. Eroğlu examines reformists’ engagement with local and transnational Muslim currents, spanning “orthodox,” “heterodox,” reformist, secular, and socialist movements from Egypt, Britain, India, Turkey, and the Soviet Union. She reveals their varied strategies and highlights how they adapted global ideas to address local challenges such as the policies of the Nationalist and Communist parties, the antireligion discourse of the New Culture Movement, and the anti-Islam rhetoric of Christian missionaries. Drawing from Republican and early Communist-era journals, Chinese translations of Islamic sources, and memoirs and travelogues, this book offers a nuanced understanding of Chinese-speaking Muslim intellectuals’ efforts to balance local and global influences in shaping their community’s future.

Hale Eroğlu is an assistant professor of history at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul. She earned her PhD in Inner Asian Studies from Harvard University. She is the author of Muslim Transnationalism in Modern China: Debates on Hui Identity and Islamic Reform, recently published by Columbia University Press. Her research explores the history of Muslims in China, with a particular focus on intellectual history. Her work has also appeared in leading journals such as the Journal of Asian Studies and Modern China.

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