Hui Culture Exhibit Opening – Crescent Moon Over the Celestial Empire

Crescent Moon Over the Celestial Empire

The Hui Minority People of Qinghai Province

新月在天朝: 青海省的回族文化

Exhibit Opening, Lecture, and Reception

Saturday, October 10, 2015 from 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Take a rare look at a cultural fusion 13 centuries in the making with this exhibit of garments, religious artifacts, and Chinese-style Arabic calligraphy from the ancestors of Muslim merchants who traveled the Silk Road to China.

Hui culture embodies a spirit of harmonious fusion. The Hui have integrated Chinese culture and Islamic faith since their ancestors began arriving from Persia, Central Asia, and the Middle East during the Tang Dynasty (唐朝 618-907 CE). Their calligraphy combines Arabic script with certain characteristics of Chinese writing. Their mosques traditionally resemble Chinese Daoist and Buddhist temples that face east, towards Mecca, instead of south. Hui have also developed their own unique cuisine featuring pulled noodles instead of rice, beef and mutton instead of pork, and the liberal use of hot peppers and cumin to flavor dishes that have become popular all over China. Even good luck charms and religious articles integrate Chinese and Islamic characteristics.

Unlike the rest of China’s 55 minority peoples, the Hui do not have their own language, territory, or physical characteristics to distinguish them from the Han Chinese. They live all over China, with the largest concentration spread across eastern Qinghai 青海, southern Gansu 甘肅, and Ningxia 寧夏 Hui Autonomous Region. Most of the Hui ancestors were merchants who settled along this passageway from the Silk Road to eastern China. They also served as middlemen among the Tibetan, Uygur, Mongolian, and Han Chinese peoples that surround this area. Today, the Hui are the second most populous of China’s minorities with a population of over 10.5 million.

Dr. Alex Stewart collected these cultural artifacts in and around Xining, Qinghai Province in 2012-2013 while conducting ethnographic research to complete his dissertation in anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. Many Hui Muslims gave Dr. Stewart artifacts to use in this exhibit, so Americans could learn about their peaceful fusion of Islamic and secular Chinese cultures.

The exhibit and opening presentation will be held at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Extension located at 328 J St., and a reception with light hors d’oeuvres will follow in the museum garden. Admission is $4; members and children under 12 are free.

Please RSVP to info@sdchm.org or 619-338-9888. For more information, please visit our website at San Diego Chinese Historical Museum.

Contact: Alex Stewart, Ph.D.
(619) 338-9888