Author Archives

• The Silent Loud: Voice, Faith, and the Practice of Listening in China’s Jahriyya Sufism

  By Sic on October 22, 2015

  

  Guangtian Ha  (SOAS, University of London) (Please do not cite or circulate without the author’s permission) Though many Jahriyya Sufis in China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region would hesitate to designate their daily recitation as a form of musical performance, they… Read More ›

• Islam by Smartphone: the changing sounds of Uyghur religiosity

  By Sic on July 21, 2015

  

  Rachel Harris (SOAS, University of London) Aziz Isa (Independent scholar) Over the past few years, localised violent incidents have become commonplace right across Xinjiang. State media blames the ongoing violence on the spread of Islamic jihadi ideals via the Internet… Read More ›

• Special Issue of the journal Performing Islam: ‘Sounding Islam in China’

  By Sic on July 18, 2015

  

  Special Issue of the journal Performing Islam: ‘Sounding Islam in China’  http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-issue,id=2887 Introduction and selected articles from this issue are now available for free download from the publisher’s website: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=209 Burning incense at the Great Shrine, Linxia, Gansu. ©Ruard Absaroka,… Read More ›

• Ending (liao) the Mukhammas

  By Sic on June 1, 2015

  Xijitan Daotang, Xiji County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China (35°53’04.8″N 105°44’35.5″E) Recorded by Ha Guangtian, March 10, 2015 This is the ritual of liao Mukhmmas at Xijitan Daotang that bears a quintessential shanqu dawr. Xijitan Daotang is perhaps the most important… Read More ›

• Project People

  By Sic on May 13, 2015

    Rachel Harris (Principal Investigator) Reader in the music of China and Central Asia, SOAS, University of London rh@soas.ac.uk Rachel Harris is an ethnomusicologist teaching in the Department of Music at SOAS. Her research focuses on musical and ritual practice… Read More ›

• Jahriyya funeral recitation

  By Sic on April 29, 2015

  Recorded by Ha Guangtian, Dongsigou Graveyard, Qingtongxia, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 21 January, 2015. The deceased is a female member from an influential Jahriyya family. In the background of the frame we can see the ahongs and other locally renowned… Read More ›

• Imams dancing to “Little Apple” in Uch Turpan, Xinjiang

  By Sic on March 25, 2015

  

  Imams in Uch Turpan dancing to the internet hit ‘Little Apple’ (Spring 2015) Song and dance has long been harnessed in the service of China’s state policy, but this latest campaign in Xinjiang seems set to make music and dance… Read More ›

• “Sounding Islam in China” project will be presenting at the AAS Annual Conference in Chicago

  By Sic on March 17, 2015

  The “Sounding Islam in China” project will be presenting a dedicated panel at the Association for Asian Scholars (AAS) Annual Conference in Chicago, March 26-29, 2015. Panel abstract There is now little doubt of the rising global connectedness of Muslims… Read More ›

• The Public Soundscape of China’s “Little Mecca”

  By Sic on February 27, 2015

  

  Wei Yukun and Xiao Mei Linxia, which lies in the central part of Gansu Province in China, is a city filled with all kinds of sounds. While some are typical of Chinese towns, others are unique to this place. As… Read More ›

• Mukhammas

  By Sic on December 9, 2014

  This recording was made in Honglefu Daotang (“Hall of Dao”) of Jahriyya Sufism after the Isha prayer (the last of the five daily prayers) on November 6, 2011. Honglefu Daotang is located in the suburb of the city of Qingtongxia,… Read More ›