Bin Chen, "Hui Muslims in the Shaping of Modern China: Education, Frontier Politics, and Nation-State" (Routledge, 2025)

Feb 16, 2026

Bin Chen, assistant professor of modern Chinese history at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, explores how Hui Muslim teacher schools shaped frontier politics and state strategies in Republican China. He discusses why the Nationalist government protected these private schools, the flexible nature of Hui identity, wartime relocations, and surprising long-term legacies like Arabic-trained skills aiding diplomacy.

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INSIGHT

Selective Enforcement For Frontier Gain

The Nationalist government publicly banned private teachers' schools in 1933 while secretly funding Muslim teacher schools.
Strategic frontier interests caused selective law enforcement to preserve political influence in Northwest China.

ANECDOTE

Bold Petition That Secured Funding

Tang Kexan boldly petitioned the government admitting his school was illegal while requesting funds in 1935.
His candid plea succeeded because the state valued the school's frontier utility more than strict legal compliance.

INSIGHT

Warlord Patronage As A State Proxy

Warlord Ma Fuxiang used Chengda Teachers' School to train modern teachers for his northwest territory and to signal modernization to Nanjing.
The Nationalist state tolerated exceptions because the school projected state influence into regions it could not directly control.

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Chen examines the Chinese Nationalist government's distinctive support for private Muslim teachers schools between the 1920s and 1940s, and explores the complex relationship between these institutions and the Chinese state during the Republican period.

In 1933, the government issued the Teachers Schools Regulations, mandating that all teachers schools be state-run. However, the Nationalists viewed private Muslim teachers schools as valuable allies in their efforts to assert influence in China’s Muslim-dominated northwestern frontier region and deliberately refrained from enforcing the 1933 Teachers Schools Regulations on them. Instead, the government applied the 1933 Amended Private Schools Regulations, which did not specifically address teachers schools, to govern Muslim teachers schools. By charting the evolving dynamics between the Nationalist state and Chinese Hui Muslims, Hui Muslims in the Shaping of Modern China: Education, Frontier Politics, and Nation-State (Routledge, 2025) reevaluates the Hui Muslims’ role in shaping modern China.

Offering crucial context on the role of Islam in modern China, this book is a valuable resource for scholars and students of Chinese history, as well as for policymakers and journalists interested in religion in China.

Bin Chen is Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his PhD from Pennsylvania State University, and his research interests include China’s modern transition and Islam in China. His publications have appeared in The Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of Modern Chinese History, International Journal of Asian Studies, and others.

Yadong Li is an anthropologist-in-training. He is a PhD candidate of Socio-cultural Anthropology at Tulane University. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here.

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