Perspective of a Chinese Muslimah
Islam in China hosts a series of entries written by a Chinese Hui Muslimah, describing the challenges she faced as a Muslim growing up in a non-Muslim environment:
There were times when I wished that I was not Muslim and later on there were times when I wished that I lived somewhere else. Some of the Muslims that I knew took the other road i.e., for them being Muslim was equivalent to an ethnicity so alcohol, pork and partying was not a taboo for them. I did not really know where I belong. For adults its easier to adapt but children do not know how the world works. Its not fun when people make fun of you if you can’t drink or people try to pretend to be interested in Islam when they actually want to hit on you.
On Eid, my family never took time off from work because we did not want to look “strange.” Even I would sometimes go out of my way to dissociate myself from the “backward” Muslims. In retrospect it was not the best of things to do but this is how many young people react who do not have a sense of direction. We seemed to be caught in trying to fit in and yet also trying to maintain our identity.
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