It's been a busy few months since I was last able to update here. Events continue to develop concerning the status of Islam in China, and the state's campaign to Sinicize religion. All of these developments deserve full explanation, and I hope to offer some discussion on this soon.
In the meantime, I thought I would pause and offer something a bit different. I've been working on publishing some of my research lately and have been spending a lot of time reviewing notes, recordings and other resources. In the course of all this exploration, I stumbled on to this YouTube channel uploading Hui 赞圣 (zansheng) or songs of praise offered to Islamic Saints.These are common among China's Sufi communities, where they are often performed as a form of dhikr.
Upon hearing these I was instantly transported back to memories of walking around Linxia (known as China's "Little Mecca") in Gansu province on a Friday morning before the weekly Jumu'ah prayers. Specifically, as I walked into the courtyard of a mosque in the community, the sounds of another 赞圣 were echoing everywhere from loudspeakers. Congregants hastily shuffled between the courtyard, the washroom, and the prayer hall as the preparation for the service began. The sounds of those songs are burned into my memory. Luckily, I was able to grab a brief recording (apologies for the shaky camera work):
This is a really unique and interesting aspect of Hui Islam, and I wanted to make sure to share it where I could. I will update more on issues more tied to current events and other aspects of my research soon.