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Bai Shouyi (; February 1909 – March 21, 2000), also known as Djamal al-Din Bai Shouyi, was a Chinese ethnologist, historian, social activist, and writer who revolutionized recent
Chinese historiography and pioneered in relying heavily on scientific excavations and reports. A Marxist philosophically, his studies thus take a very class-centric view and reasoning.
Born a son of a
Hui
The Hui people ( zh, c=, p=Huízú, w=Hui2-tsu2, Xiao'erjing: , dng, Хуэйзў, ) are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. They are distributed throughout China, mainly in the n ...
merchant in
Kaifeng
Kaifeng () is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, China. It is one of the Eight Ancient Capitals of China, having been the capital eight times in history, and is best known for having been the Chinese capital during the Nort ...
, he became literate in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
from his mother and aunt.
Bai argued for the need for increased awareness of Islam and Muslims by the Chinese population in general in 1937, since Muslims numbered 50 million in China alone and western works were the only works available for non-Muslim Chinese to study Muslims living right with them in China. He said Muslims in Western China could either stand as a "defensive wall" or "hinder ...national defence", depending on whether conduct to them was good or bad.
He died in
Beijing
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Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
at the age of 91.
See also
*
Chinese history
The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the ''Book of Documents'' (early chapter ...
References
*Bai Shouyi et al. (2003). ''A History of Chinese Muslim''. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. . Cover page.
1909 births
2000 deaths
20th-century Chinese historians
Chinese ethnographers
Chinese Muslims
Historians from Henan
Hui people
People's Republic of China historians
Republic of China historians
Writers from Kaifeng
{{China-historian-stub