Reposted from the web

Summary: Sanya — Huihui Muslims, Mosques and Island History is presented here as a firsthand travel account in clear English, beginning with this scene: This is my record of my first visit to the Hui Muslims in Sanya, Hainan, in 2017. For my second visit in 2020, see my diary entry, 'Celebrating Eid al-Adha in Sanya'. The account keeps its focus on Sanya Muslims, Huihui People, Halal Travel while preserving the names, places, food, and historical details from the Chinese source.

This is my record of my first visit to the Hui Muslims in Sanya, Hainan, in 2017. For my second visit in 2020, see my diary entry, 'Celebrating Eid al-Adha in Sanya'.

In 'History of Hainan Muslims,' we discussed how the Cham people from southern Vietnam moved to the coast of Hainan Island during the Song and Yuan dynasties due to war or typhoons. These 'foreigners' (fanren), who shared customs similar to the Hui Muslims, left behind several ancient coral stone Muslim cemeteries on the coastal sand dunes of southern Hainan. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the 'foreigners' living in Qiongshan, Danzhou, Wanzhou, and Yazhou of Hainan gradually integrated with the local population. The remaining people all moved to the Suo Sanya Li Fan village, forming the current Sanya Hui Muslim community.

In this article, I will continue to talk about the Sanya Hui Muslims since the late Qing dynasty, as well as the halal food in the two Muslim communities of Huihui Village and Huixin Village.

Table of Contents

1. The Hui Muslims since the Qing Dynasty

1. Traveling to Southeast Asia (Xia Nanyang)

2. Japanese military builds an airport, Hui Muslims forced to relocate

3. From fishing and farming to business

4. Muslims from various places coming to live here

2. Halal food in Huixin Village

3. Halal food in Huihui Village

4. Mosques of the Hui Muslims

1. Changes to the Huihui Mosque

2. Ancient Mosque (Qingzhen Gusi)

3. Northwest Grand Mosque (Qingzhen Xibei Dasi)

4. North Mosque (Qingzhen Beisi)

5. East Mosque (Qingzhen Dongsi)

6. South Mosque (Qingzhen Nansi)

7. Nankai Mosque

1. The Hui Muslims since the Qing Dynasty

1. Traveling to Southeast Asia (Xia Nanyang)

According to the 'Genealogy of the Pu Family in Sanya Port Tong Village,' the Hui Muslims suffered a major disaster during the Xianfeng era. In 1858 (the eighth year of Xianfeng), the foreign village was burned, looted, and attacked by bandits. The survivors had to live in the mountains and forests. The following year, the bandits were wiped out or surrendered, and the Hui Muslims were able to rebuild their homes. However, because of this disaster, many Hui Muslims fled to Singapore, Penang, and Vietnam in Southeast Asia:

'From the beginning until the eighth year of Xianfeng, on the 22nd day of the tenth lunar month at 5-7 AM, we suffered a tragedy. Li bandits from Lingshui, colluding with local Li people, started an uprising. They looted and killed without stopping, burning everything to the ground. Countless people died, and bodies were scattered everywhere.' 'From then until this summer, we lived on the seaside slopes and in the mountains. Our suffering was like catching snakes, and our troubles were like walking through fire. The sky was sad and the earth was sorrowful, and we had nowhere to turn.' 'By the fourth month of the ninth year, we were lucky that the gentlemen and scholars of Yazhou heard of our plight and felt pity. They provided funds for food and fuel, 100 strings of copper coins, and lent them to Sanya to hire local militia to suppress the Li bandits.' 'By the sixth month, the Li bandits in the various villages were terrified and surrendered.' 'Only then could everyone return to rebuild their houses and focus on settling the people.' The population was small, and people fled to places like Singapore, Vietnam, and other foreign ports to start families, with about a hundred people living or dead. Sanya was empty, the people were poor, and the land was barren, so they returned to their old ways of fishing and gathering from the sea.

2. Japanese military builds an airport, Hui Muslims forced to relocate

After the bandit chaos during the Xianfeng era, the Hui Hui people continued their quiet life in Suosanya Village, making a living by fishing. After the Republic of China was established, Yazhou was renamed Ya County, and Fan Village was called Huihui Township, belonging to the Second District of East Ya County.

At dawn on February 14, 1939, the Japanese navy landed on the coast near Sanya and occupied Sanya Bay with almost no resistance.

In the summer of 1940, the Japanese military decided to build a seaplane and land airport in Suosanya, so they moved all the Hui Hui people 4 kilometers west to live in Yanglan. The 350 houses and 4 mosques in Fan Village were all torn down, and the new settlement was called Huihui Village.

After the Japanese left in 1945, some Hui Hui people returned to the old Fan Village, which then became known as Huixin Village or the Old Village, while the name Suosanya was no longer used.

From then on, the Hui Hui people formed two communities: Huihui Village and Huixin Village.

Huihui Village



Traditional clothing for Hui Hui women includes a dark headscarf (gaitou) and a jacket with a slanted right-side opening, fastened with three silver or cloth buttons at the collar and two under the arm, with cuffed sleeves. The shirt has a seam down the center of the chest and back, reaches the hips, and is worn with dark trousers.

The most unique part of Hui Hui women's clothing is the black apron (bufu) worn over the shirt, which is not found among the neighboring Han or Li people.



The earliest Hui Hui people lived in thatched huts, just like the local Li and Han people. To withstand typhoons, these houses were very low and sometimes you could not even stand up straight inside. In modern times, these thatched huts were gradually replaced by brick houses with black tiles, which lasted until the tourism industry in Sanya boomed in the 1990s. Today, there are not many black-tiled brick houses left, as they have mostly been replaced by modern buildings.









On the bus from Huihui Village to Huixin Village



A wedding banquet for Hui Hui people in Huixin Village







Black-tiled brick houses in Huixin Village





3. From fishing and farming to business

By the 1950s and 1960s, the Hui Hui people still made a living by fishing in shallow waters. They used bamboo rafts to carry fishing nets out to sea, and a team of 35 people would pull the nets from the shore in two rows, usually once a day, catching 200 to 300 jin of fish on average, up to 5,000 jin at most, and as little as a few dozen jin at the least.

The Hui Hui people were never good at farming and used to rent their land to the Li people to cultivate. After the People's Commune was established in 1958, the government organized nearby Han and Li people to teach the Hui Hui people agricultural techniques, but it did not work well. After the 1970s, more than 2,000 mu of farmland belonging to the Hui Hui people was given to the Han and Li people in neighboring villages, leaving the Hui Hui with only 200 mu of garden and residential land, mainly for growing vegetables.

After the 1980s, as shallow-water resources were depleted and the Hui Hui fishermen lacked the ability to fish in deep waters, the fishing industry basically stopped, with only occasional small-scale fishing for fish and shrimp as a side job.

Fish market in Huixin Village





Starting in 1979, some Hui Hui women who were unhappy with the economic decline began to go out to do small business. By 1982, almost every Hui Hui family had women selling local specialties and tourist souvenirs in towns and scenic spots, which significantly improved their family lives.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the Hui Hui people gradually formed a trend of going out to do business; besides women selling goods at scenic spots, many men also started working in the passenger transport industry. Since 1982, many Hui Muslim men have bought two-wheeled motorcycles or three-wheeled vehicles to carry passengers between the city center and tourist spots. After Sanya Phoenix Airport was built in 1994, Huihui Village became a major traffic hub because it is right next to the airport. Huihui people started buying minibuses and small buses to run passenger routes from the airport to the city, with men working as drivers and women as conductors.

4. Muslims from various places coming to live here

After Sanya's tourism industry boomed in the 1990s, Huihui Village and Huixin Village became the only two Muslim communities in Sanya, and many Muslim tourists from all over the country chose to stay here. Gradually, the Muslim tourists shifted from young and middle-aged people on short sightseeing trips to older people staying for long periods to escape the cold. Starting every October, Huihui Village and Huixin Village fill up with older Muslim people from Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia, including Uyghur, Salar, Dongxiang, and Hui ethnic groups who come to escape the winter. They live here for the entire winter and do not return home until April or May of the following year.

At this time, you can see Uyghurs wearing floral headscarves (duopa) and Hehuang Hui Muslims wearing white skullcaps and black head coverings (gaitou) mingling together on the streets. Seeing people from Northeast China in shorts makes you think you are in Shenyang in the summer, while seeing Huihui people in floral trousers and headscarves speaking the Tsat language makes you think you have arrived in Southeast Asia. There is halal Hainan food, Yili food, Xining food, Linxia food, and even Xi'an and Henan food here. It feels like a utopia far away from winter.











After the reform and opening up, the first people to come to Huihui and Huixin villages to open shops were Hui, Dongxiang, and Salar Muslims from Gansu and Qinghai. Later, Uyghurs also came to Huihui Village to open Uyghur specialty restaurants, followed by Hui Muslims from Yunnan, Henan, and other places who opened restaurants. Because of this, you can taste halal food from all over the country here.

A shop selling Uyghur embroidered clothing.



A bridge-crossing rice noodle (guoqiao mixian) shop opened by Shadian Hui Muslims.



A restaurant opened by Yili Hui Muslims where you can eat smoked meat with pasta (naren).



A restaurant opened by Henan Hui Muslims where you can eat steamed bowl dishes (kouwan) and braised noodles (huimian).



2. Halal food in Huixin Village





Freshly picked starfruit.





Dried eel made by a Huihui auntie.







Jackfruit.





Cassava.





Beef brisket noodles from Li's Rice Noodle Shop.







Huihui-style sour soup fish from the first fresh fish soup shop. I ordered an eight-tael land fish (luzaiyu). Adding starfruit is a special feature of Huihui sour soup fish. It also came with free coconut-scented red rice.













3. Halal food in Huihui Village

Huihui Village during the day.











Huihui Market.







Old duck porridge.







Beef brisket noodles from Haxuanren Beef Brisket Noodle King.







Seafood congee and beef bone soup from Li's Beef Bone Soup Shop.









Winged beans, stir-fried pumpkin leaves with shrimp paste, and coconut red rice from Hualide Restaurant.









White snails and stir-fried noodles from Phoenix Yueju Restaurant.









Huihui Village at night.



Halal seafood barbecue and coconut milk herbal dessert (qingbuliang). I ordered grouper, saury, and squid tentacles. The herbal dessert had twelve ingredients, which is quite luxurious.



















This is my favorite halal seafood barbecue spot at night. The next night, I went back and ordered tilapia, sea snails, cuttlefish, and squid tentacles. A young Li man was drinking coconut milk herbal dessert (qingbuliang), a young Hui Muslim couple from the Northwest ordered fourteen skewers of grilled steamed buns (kaomantou), and a middle-aged Uyghur couple I have seen on the street many times ordered a lot of oysters. The city management officers did not come today, so we ate happily.











At Hui's Fresh Fish Soup (Huiji Xianyu Tang), I ate clams, oysters, coconut-flavored red rice, and fresh coconut. This shop has a great atmosphere for being on the halal street on Fenghuang Road. There is a small courtyard with two longan trees at the entrance, and it feels so comfortable to sit in the 26-degree breeze.

















I ate spicy crab made with triangle crabs at Dongsheng Seafood Processing Restaurant. Triangle crabs are the cheapest crabs in the shop, costing 80 yuan per jin.









Seafood fish noodles and coconut milk herbal dessert (qingbuliang) at Fatty's Halal Fast Food (Pangzi Qingzhen Kuican).







Wenchang chicken and Hainan wild vegetables, also known as revolution greens (ye tonghao), at Fenghuang Yuwenwei Seafood Food City.







4. Mosques of the Hui Muslims

1. Changes to the Huihui Mosque

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were four mosques in Sanya's Fan Village, known as the East, West, South, and North mosques. They were all built in the Han Chinese architectural style, and the largest one was the West Mosque.

In 1931, German ethnologist H. Stubel visited Sanya twice. In his 1937 book, The Li Tribes of Hainan Island: A Contribution to the Ethnology of South China (Die Li-stamme der Insel Hainan, Ein Beitrag zur Volkskunde Sudchinas), he recorded the mosques and Islamic faith of the Huihui people:

There are four Islamic mosques in Sanya. In the largest one, located in the west, we were warmly welcomed by the respected mullah (a title for Islamic scholars) and teachers. They treated us to cakes and eggs soaked in sweet syrup.

The mosques are not very large, but they are beautiful, clean, and built in the Han Chinese architectural style, just like in other parts of China. The Muslims in Sanya belong to the Shafi'i school, and they keep in touch with the Muslims in Guangzhou, especially those at the Huaisheng Mosque (Guangta Si).

According to a respected Han Chinese merchant at the Sanya port, these Muslims are helpful and friendly people who own land, most of which they rent out. Besides hunting, they also fish and own fishing boats. There are a total of 400 Muslim households in Sanya port, about 2,000 people. Their village has been burned down twice.

These Muslims can be divided into two types: one has a narrow face and a long, hooked nose. The other type has a less prominent but wider nose with a sunken bridge and more prominent cheekbones; the latter type is more common. The older men there often have striking beards, and you can see men wearing fezzes everywhere. Muslims who have been on a pilgrimage to Mecca grow long beards and wear popular fez headscarves. The educated people among them can speak very good Mandarin. But others speak a very unique dialect. Most of their numerals come from the Malay language, but other than that, there seem to be no other signs of Malay influence.

In 1940, the Japanese army built an airport in Fan Village, and all four mosques were destroyed. After the Huihui people moved to Yanglan Huihui Township, they renamed the East Mosque as the Ancient Mosque (Gusi) and rebuilt it, and they merged the West and North mosques to rebuild them as the Northwest Grand Mosque. The two rebuilt mosques are similar to the traditional black-tiled brick houses of the Huihui people, only distinguished by signs on the doorways.

After the Japanese army left in 1945, some villagers returned to the old village and rebuilt the South Mosque. At this time, the Huihui people had three mosques.

After 1966, Red Guards from Beijing traveled south to Hainan. Together with Red Guards from Yaxian Middle School, they tore down the mosque of the Hui Hui people, burned religious texts, confiscated robes used for namaz, and banned all religious activities. At that time, some imams led the people to secretly perform namaz by the seaside, in air-raid shelters, or in sugarcane fields. If they were caught, they would be taken away for study sessions or forced labor. Pu Zongli, an old imam in Huihui Village, was taken away to a study session and labeled an unrepentant counter-revolutionary for leading people in secret namaz.

After 1978, the Hui Hui people resumed normal religious activities and began to restore their mosques. In 1978, the North Mosque (Beidasi) was separated from the Northwest Great Mosque. In 1979, the East Mosque (Dongsi) was separated from the Ancient Mosque (Gusi). In 1990, the Nankai Mosque was newly built in Huixin Village (the old village). Since then, Huihui Village has had six mosques.

2. Ancient Mosque (Qingzhen Gusi)

The predecessor of the Ancient Mosque in Huihui Village was the East Mosque of Suosanya Lifan Village. It was reportedly built in 1470 and was originally a Chinese-style building.

In the 1920s, the East Mosque was rebuilt into an Arabic-style reinforced concrete building with an arched design, and the main prayer hall was octagonal.

After 1940, it was destroyed because the Japanese army built an airport there. It was moved to Yanglan Huihui Township, rebuilt, and renamed the Ancient Mosque. It was destroyed again after 1966 and rebuilt in 1982 as a brick house with black tiles.

In 1986, a Muslim delegation from Hong Kong and Macau donated funds to expand it into an Arabic-style building. After renovations in 1999, a dome was added.

The Ancient Mosque was hit by floods twice in 2008 and 2009. During the Mawlid (Shengjijie) in 2010, funds were raised to rebuild it into a more modern Arabic-style building.



3. Northwest Grand Mosque (Qingzhen Xibei Dasi)

The Northwest Great Mosque in Huihui Village was formed by merging the North Mosque and the West Mosque of Suosanya Lifan Village. The West Mosque was reportedly built in 1473. It was destroyed in 1940 for the Japanese airport, then rebuilt in Yanglan Huihui Township as the Northwest Great Mosque by merging with the North Mosque. It was destroyed again after 1966 and rebuilt in 1978 as a Chinese-style palace building.











4. North Mosque (Qingzhen Beisi)

The North Mosque of Huihui Village was originally located in Suosanya Lifan Village and was reportedly built in 1487. It was destroyed in 1940 for the Japanese airport, then rebuilt in Yanglan Huihui Township as the Northwest Great Mosque by merging with the North Mosque. It was destroyed again after 1966, separated from the Northwest Great Mosque in 1978, rebuilt as a Chinese-style palace building in 1981, expanded in 1993, and is currently being rebuilt again.



5. East Mosque (Qingzhen Dongsi)

The East Mosque of Suosanya Lifan Village was reportedly built in 1470. It was destroyed after 1940 for the Japanese airport, moved to Yanglan Huihui Township, rebuilt, and renamed the Ancient Mosque. It was destroyed again after 1966 and separated from the Ancient Mosque in 1979.



6. South Mosque (Qingzhen Nansi)

The South Mosque of Huixin Village was reportedly built in 1487. It was destroyed in 1940 for the Japanese airport, rebuilt as a brick house with black tiles after the Japanese left in 1945, destroyed again after 1966, and rebuilt as a brick house with black tiles in 1978. After several more rebuilds, it reached its current size in 2016.



7. Nankai Mosque

The Nankai Mosque in Huixin Village was built in 1990, with the name meaning 'open south'. view all