The 39-year-old poet was born after the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, when the Hui – China’s second-largest Muslim ethnic group – were among the masses tormented by the Red Guard. The 10 million Hui living across China generally speak Mandarin. They aspired to become middlemen on a revived Silk Road linking China with Islamic nations. “It was going to be an opportunity for the Hui to play an important role as ambassadors to the Islamic world,” Stroup said. It came as a shock, he said, when new regulations targeted the practices of Hui alongside those of other religious groups earlier this year.

Source: thestar December 29, 2018 00:11 UTC