ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the long history of Islam in China, recounting how numerous Islamic movements contributed to the diverse tapestry of Chinese Islam before comparing the two revival movements to arrive in twentieth-century China: Salafiyya and Tabligh Jamaat. It introduces several "reaffirmed Muslims", who were born Muslim, but only recently made an individual decision to actively study and adhere to Islamic practices. The chapter highlights the structure of Islamic communities and the role of religious professionals in profiling several imams and contrasting their sectarian beliefs. It discusses how participants in Tabligh Jamaat cultivate a virtuous habitus while on missionary journeys, hoping it will transform them into more virtuous people. The chapter weighs the influence of these individual conversions and networks of revivalists on conceptions of Hui ethnicity and Islamic modernity, suggesting implications for the role of religion in the post-socialist Chinese state and our understanding of Islamic minorities in secular societies.
