- Hui
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Hui (hwē) also Hwei (hwā)
n. pl. Hui or Huis also Hwei or Hweis
A member of a Muslim people of northwest China, descended chiefly from the Han and an important minority of the Chinese population; a Chinese Muslim.[Chinese (Mandarin) Huí.]
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IMuslim people of western China.They number about nine million. Their ancestors were merchants, soldiers, craftsmen, and scholars who came to China from Islamic Persia and Central Asia from the 7th to the 13th century and intermarried with the Han Chinese and other local nationalities. Most are farmers and live in rural areas. They speak Chinese dialects and are distinguishable from their neighbours chiefly by their religion.II(as used in expressions)An huiHui Autonomous Region of NingxiaLee Teng hui* * *
▪ peoplealso spelled Hwei or Huihui , also called Tonggan , Burmese Pathay , Russian Dunganan official nationality of China, composed of nearly 10 million people. The Hui are Chinese Muslims (i.e., neither Turkic nor Mongolian) who have intermingled with the Han Chinese throughout China but are relatively concentrated in western China—in the provinces or autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Yunnan. Considerable numbers also live in Anhui, Liaoning, and Beijing. The Hui are also found on the frontier between China and Myanmar (Burma) and in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, in Central Asia. They speak Mandarin as a first language.The ancestors of the Hui were merchants, soldiers, handicraftsmen, and scholars who came to China from Islamic Persia (Islāmic world) and Central Asia from the 7th to the 13th century. After these ancestors settled in China, they intermarried with the Han Chinese, Uighur, and Mongolian nationalities and came to speak Chinese languages, or dialects (while often retaining Arabic, too). Eventually their appearance and other cultural characteristics became thoroughly Chinese. They now engage mostly in agriculture, and most of them live in rural areas, although urban dwellers are significantly increasing. There have been a number of famous Hui thinkers, navigators, scientists, and artists. The “Hui Brigade” was active in World War II, in the resistance against Japan (1937–45).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
