Abstract It is often assumed that in premodern Chinese society, Huihui (Muslim) and Han identities were mutually exclusive, separated by fixed and impermeable boundaries. This article challenges that assumption through three case studies. It shows that, in Yuan-Ming China, identities could shift between Huihui and Han by means of adoption, reconfigured ancestral memory, and changes of surname. The first case examines legal documents from Qara-Khoto, in which a Han girl was adopted by a Muslim family and later married a Muslim male, thereby nominally transforming her identity from Han to Huihui. The second case concerns a Muslim lineage in Ming Quanzhou, some of whose members redefined their ancestral memory to identify themselves as Han. The third case demonstrates how another Huihui lineage in Ming Quanzhou developed mechanisms that allowed members to alternate between Huihui and Han identities in order to ensure the lineage’s survival and prosperity in a predominantly Han society. Taken together, this article argues that Muslims in Yuan-Ming China adopted shifting identities as a deliberate strategy to navigate the social and political challenges of their time.
Haiwei Liu (Tue,) studied this question.