Transnational Perspectives on Identification and Hierarchization

Xu, AM. (2025) Neoliberal multiculturalism and ethnic entrepreneurial self: a transnational perspective on ethnicity in China. The Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261251353352

This article contributes to a transnational perspective on ethnic identity construction. China Studies have predominantly focused on how power dynamics within the national boundary shape ethnic identity construction, China's increasing integration into the global capitalist system calls for a transnational approach to the study of ethnicity in the country. This article responds to this call by examining how Chinese Muslims negotiate ethnic identity and status hierarchies through transnational economic engagement. I argue that China’s ambition to establish itself as a global power has led to the emergence of a new official discourse of neoliberal multiculturalism, which redefines minoritized ethnicity as a global market asset. I show that Chinese Muslims have mobilized this neoliberal multiculturalism state discourse as a cultural repertoire to reimagine symbolic hierarchies of class, ethnicity and nation, and to negotiate authoritarian state power.

Xu, AM. (2022) “Diasporic before the move: China’s Hui Muslims’ trade and ties with Iran and Muslimness.” In Routledge Handbook on Middle Eastern Diasporas, edited by Abdelhady, Dalia, and Ramy Aly, 262-273. Taylor & Francis.

My book chapter "Diasporic before the Move" theorizes how migration and transnational connections shape Chinese Muslims' identity formation. Contrary to the prevalent notion that diasporic consciousness arises from transnational mobility, this study demonstrates how Hui Muslims cultivate a diasporic identity within China through integration into a transnational Islamic network.