On the Huihui Question

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-369
Author(s):  
Aaron Glasserman

Abstract In Western discourse today the charge that Islam is “not just a religion” but a comprehensive social system is leveled to cast doubt over Muslims' ability to integrate into a political community. In the People's Republic of China, this understanding of Islam has served the opposite purpose. From the perspective of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), religion cannot be the basis for legitimate political identity. Islam, however, is not just a religion. Rather, as a “social system,” Islam constitutes a legitimate basis for national identity, and the Hui (Huihui), or Chinese Muslims, therefore constitute a minority nationality. This essay explores the origins of the CCP's understanding of Islam in the 1930s and 1940s, when the Party first formulated its policy vis-à-vis the Hui. Glasserman shows how this understanding of Islam as “not just a religion” suited the political, geopolitical, and ideological circumstances of the Yan'an period (1936–48). He also shows how this understanding was informed by contemporary Hui discourse and activism.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-218
Author(s):  
Nur Zaini

Political identity refers to a group or individual whose existence is seen through the symbols that indicate the existence of a particular group or individual. These symbols are in the forms of ethnic group, ethnicity, religion, language, culture, custom, habit, and party color. Political identity is a construction that determines the position of the subject's interest within the ties of the political community. This study aims to describe the characteristics and to find out the attempts conducted by Jerieng Malay ethnic group in order to strengthen their existence as a political identity unit. This study applied the theory of political identity proposed by T. K. Oommen who uses the term ethnification in the study of ethnic group and its dynamics. According to him, ethnification is a process that attempts to connect territory and culture. The method used in this study wasdescriptive qualitative. Further, the result of this study shows that in the process of characteristic development and the strengthening attempt conducted by Jerieng Malay ethnic group, there has been a re-ethnification in which the ethnification is not fully developed. Ethnification within the Jerieng Malay ethnic group is still fragmented in which a particular group has attempted to re-ethnize the local identity. However, this generates a fragmentation in society as the consequence of the deprivation of the historical division of local identity.


2011 ◽  
Vol 206 ◽  
pp. 391-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-lin Chung

AbstractWhen the king went astray, the people suffered for it. Just as a wayward king needed loyal and capable courtiers to implement his wishes, so too did Mao Zedong in the People's Republic of China. The Anti-Rightist Campaign was one of Mao's controversial policies, and involved him delegating his trusted followers to implement his political initiatives. This article examines how the Central Secretariat, led by Deng Xiaoping, effectively implemented and strictly supervised the process, as well as the negative influences of the Central Secretariat on this witch-hunt-like campaign. It thus provides a case study of how the Central Secretariat operated and functioned as a powerful political apparatus in the political processes of the Chinese Communist Party during the pre-Cultural Revolution period.


1950 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Arthur Steiner

With the proclamation on October 1, 1949, of the establishment of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, Chinese Communism formally passed into its constitutional phase. Prior to that date, the Chinese Communist Party had been the only political organization exercising authority throughout all of the territories held by Communist armed forces; thereafter, to all external appearances, it became but one of several political parties and groups participating in the coalition government of the “people’s democratic dictatorship.” Nevertheless, the new constitutional fagade does not alter the political realities in Communist China.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Ong Argo Victoria

This paper examines the political history of the relationship between Malaysia and Singapore, focusing on the notion of citizenship and its ethnic, civic and political dimensions. It analyses the extent to which the merger of Singapore with Malaysia redefined the citizenship boundaries of the Malaysian national political identity. The incorporation of Singaporean citizens into the Malaysian political community was controversial, as it was closely related to electoral stakes. The ruling People’s Action Party and the Alliance Party attempted to delineate the political sphere of the population of each political unit through the demarcation between ‘citizenship’ and ‘nationality’. However, the citizenship crisis continued to trouble the relationship of these states to the point that both parties breached the perceived agreement not to interfere with the other’s political sphere of influence. This sphere of influence was delineated on the basis of race, thus cutting across political territory rather than territorial attributes. The ideological clashes over the meaning of citizenship that arose during the political merger of Singapore and Malaya, show that a truly Malaysian citizenship could not be developed-only a Malaysia of citizens.


2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 104-125
Author(s):  
Fernando Calzadilla

Each week like clockwork, Encapuchados—“hooded ones”—appear on the streets of Caracas to protest. Protest what? To what effect? Calzadilla examines the Encapuchados phenomenon in terms of Venezuelan gendered notions of virility, the performance of political identity and spectatorship, and finally, an embodiment of an imagined political community.


Author(s):  
Oskar Gruszczyński

Dancing in chains: Chinese film censorship, 1949–1966 After the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and the subsequent nationalization of the domestic film industry three years later, the Chinese Communist Party gained unlimited control over the entire Chinese film world, while film itself became an instrument of state propaganda. In order to fulfill their role ‘in the service of workers, peasants, and soldiers’, filmmakers had to abide strictly by the requirements which the CPC had imposed upon them, and subject themselves to a rigorous film censorship system. Artistic independence and freedom were subject to the political needs of a one-party state and its ideology. The establishment of a full-fledged and extremely complex institutional censorship system in 1953 resulted in the emergence of two distinct phenomena: self-censorship and social censorship. Both of these made it possible for the CPC to gain full control not only over the film industry, but also, in certain aspects, over the minds of filmmakers as well as the audiences. This article aims at revealing the mechanisms of the Chinese censorship system in the period stretching from 1949 to 1966, and to elucidate the disastrous effects which these exceedingly rigorous control mechanisms brought upon the Chinese film industry in general in this turbulent era


Popular Music ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wai-chung Ho

IntroductionThe aim of this paper is to analyse shifting themes in the meanings of Hong Kong popular songs relating to ideological and political changes in Hong Kong since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident (TSI). In particular, the paper examines the relationship between Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China (PRC) concerning the transmission of Hong Kong popular music, and argues that Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese popular musics articulate fluctuating political meanings. Attention will be focused predominantly on the lyrics, but some aspects of the music are also invoked. After highlighting the political and cultural relations between Hong Kong and the PRC, I discuss the social transformations and the struggles for democracy delineated in Chinese popular music during the 1989 TSI. This is followed by an examination of the intensification of the conflict between the PRC and Hong Kong over the dissemination of popular songs carrying democratic messages in Hong Kong. Finally, the paper considers the rise of patriotism and/or nationalism through lyrics rooted in the notion of educating Hong Kong Chinese people into accepting the cultural and political identity of mainland China, and the promotion of popular songs in the official language of the PRC, Putonghua, since the late transitional period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-113
Author(s):  
Francesco Rotiroti

This article seeks to define a theoretical framework for the study of the relation between religion and the political community in the Roman world and to analyze a particular case in point. The first part reviews two prominent theories of religion developed in the last fifty years through the combined efforts of anthropologists and classicists, arguing for their complementary contribution to the understanding of religion's political dimension. It also provides an overview of the approaches of recent scholarship to the relation between religion and the Roman polity, contextualizing the efforts of this article toward a theoretical reframing of the political and institutional elements of ancient Christianity. The second part focuses on the religious legislation of the Theodosian Code, with particular emphasis on the laws against the heretics and their performance in the construction of the political community. With their characteristic language of exclusion, these laws signal the persisting overlap between the borders of the political community and the borders of religion, in a manner that one would expect from pre-Christian civic religions. Nevertheless, the political essence of religion did also adapt to the ecumenical dimension of the empire. Indeed, the religious norms of the Code appear to structure a community whose borders tend to be identical to the borders of the whole inhabited world, within which there is no longer room for alternative affiliations; the only possible identity outside this community is that of the insane, not belonging to any political entity and thus unable to possess any right.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Susilowati ◽  
Zahrotunnimah Zahrotunnimah ◽  
Nur Rohim Yunus

AbstractPresidential Election in 2019 has become the most interesting executive election throughout Indonesia's political history. People likely separated, either Jokowi’s or Prabowo’s stronghold. Then it can be assumed, when someone, not a Jokowi’s stronghold he or she certainly within Prabowo’s stronghold. The issue that was brought up in the presidential election campaign, sensitively related to religion, communist ideology, China’s employer, and any other issues. On the other side, politics identity also enlivened the presidential election’s campaign in 2019. Normative Yuridis method used in this research, which was supported by primary and secondary data sourced from either literature and social phenomenon sources as well. The research analysis concluded that political identity has become a part of the political campaign in Indonesia as well as in other countries. The differences came as the inevitability that should not be avoided but should be faced wisely. Finally, it must be distinguished between political identity with the politicization of identity clearly.Keywords. Identity Politics, 2019 Presidential Election


Author(s):  
Michael N. Barnett

How do American Jews envision their role in the world? Are they tribal—a people whose obligations extend solely to their own? Or are they prophetic—a light unto nations, working to repair the world? This book is an interpretation of the effects of these worldviews on the foreign policy beliefs of American Jews since the nineteenth century. The book argues that it all begins with the political identity of American Jews. As Jews, they are committed to their people's survival. As Americans, they identify with, and believe their survival depends on, the American principles of liberalism, religious freedom, and pluralism. This identity and search for inclusion form a political theology of prophetic Judaism that emphasizes the historic mission of Jews to help create a world of peace and justice. The political theology of prophetic Judaism accounts for two enduring features of the foreign policy beliefs of American Jews. They exhibit a cosmopolitan sensibility, advocating on behalf of human rights, humanitarianism, and international law and organizations. They also are suspicious of nationalism—including their own. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that American Jews are natural-born Jewish nationalists, the book charts a long history of ambivalence; this ambivalence connects their early rejection of Zionism with the current debate regarding their attachment to Israel. And, the book contends, this growing ambivalence also explains the rising popularity of humanitarian and social justice movements among American Jews.


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