Ethnic Clashes Erupt in China, Leaving 150 Dead. The story details the strife and rioting that occurred after a Hui taxi driver struck a Han girl and killed her. The Han are who we generally think of when we speak of “Chinese,” and form between 90-95% of the China’s population (some of the same tendencies that have occurred in the United States with Native American ancestry claims being boosted by cultural change and preferential policies have probably inflated the number of minorities in China). The Hui are “Chinese Muslims”, in that unlike Uighers or Kazakhs, who are Turkic speaking Muslim citizens of China, the Hui speak the local Chinese dialect and are physically indistinguishable from the Han.1 In times past, there have been tensions and violence between Han and Hui, and during the late 19th century the Hui set up warlordships in Yunnan, but the Hui have also been used by the Chinese gtovernment as proxies in Turkic Muslim areas. This illustrates the peculiarity of Hui identity, among other Muslims their similarities to the Han are stark, while around the Han their Muslim religion (and pork avoidance) is most salient.

Why does this matter? China matters. No elaboration needed.

1 – The Hui are probably the descendents of Muslims who migrated to China and intermarried with local women. As such, some do display a phenotype that shows an influence from their Central and West Asian ancestors. Many Hui in fact claim that these atypical individuals are the archetypical exemplars of their group in terms of appearance. Additionally, there is evidence that a nontrivial number of Hui have been assimilated into the Han population, therefore the maxim “…the ancestors have eat no pork.”

Posted by razib at 02:21 PM