Those who live in China - how are Muslims treated?

I lived in Beijing for two years and I seldom (if ever) saw a woman wearing a head scarf such as in the photo. I imagine that people may stare simply because it's different. But then again, Beijing is such a diverse city with lots of different ethnic groups, that you may simply be clumped in with the masses and ignored. I know you'll need to check around for mosques that have women's prayer rooms . . . there's not one in the district I live in in my city.

I now live in China's Northwest and the head scarf is very common. No one would bat an eye.

However, unlike what others have said . . . judgment based upon appearance is very common in China. I am a Caucasian woman with dark brown hair. I live in a somewhat large city (over 3 million) on a somewhat large campus (12,000+ students). I'm starting my fourth year here.

As I was standing in the stairwell today with my luggage (just returned from the US), waiting for my husband to come down (six flights of stairs, no elevator), a family new to the building came down. They had a little girl about 10 years old with them. That little girl literally stopped and simply stared at me. She stared and stared and stared . . . eyes traveling from head to toe. She asked her mother (I assume it was her mother) if I was a foreigner. Her mother replied, "Yes, but she can't understand you." I had already said hello in Chinese, but at that point, I commented that I could, indeed, understand them. I smiled as I spoke and the little girl just backed off a little bit and then squinted to read the characters on my necklace.

I say this simply to point out that blatant staring does happen.

My city has a large population of Muslims. I have many Muslim students in my classes. However, as I've gotten to know them, I have found that most of them are Muslim in identity only . . . they were born into a Muslim family. Very few of them actually know much about their faith. Muslim women are usually the least informed, at least in my limited sample size.

When the ethnic unrest happened a couple of years ago, the Muslims in my city had a sit-down silent protest in support of others in the country, but that's about it.

Unfortunately, there is a negative stereotype towards the Muslims (mostly Hui) in that someone will automatically assume that when they've been pickpocketed, that the pickpocket was a Hui. If anything is stolen from a store, the "of course, it was a Hui." Among the Hui community, the reverse is said . . . "A Han stole my cell phone."

I should point out that physically speaking, there is little difference in the appearance of a Hui or a Han unless they dress differently.

However, when the unrest in Xinjiang occurred (mostly involving Uyghurs and Han), there was ethnic support of the Han in our city. Many of the Uyghur restaurants ending up closing down due to lack of customers. The Han stopped coming.

As large as China is, you'll find yourself a part of many different stories. I recommend your keeping a journal to record various reactions that people have. I'm sure you'll find them interesting.

Good luck!

EDIT: Poppy (aka HJT, aka Chloe), you sound like a very angry young woman. I'm sorry you have had such bad experiences in Boston. Racism is definitely real in all parts of the world. Your experiences are uniquely yours and those same experiences have shaped who you are and how you view the world.

In light of that, I encourage you to remember that each person has their own story and their own experiences. You don't know my story . . . nor do you know my experiences. While I am white, I have lived in the shadow of prejudice due to other aspects of my life. I have lived as a minority for many years in various situations. I do know what it is like to be disliked or even hated because of belief systems or because of being poor. I also have a mentally handicapped sister who was a victim of teasing and even "hate crimes" throughout my growing up years.

My husband is an ABC and he has shared his stories of racism that affected his life while growing up. The United States is not Utopia, but can any place be called that?

I was not complaining about the Chinese girl staring at me. You need to carefully read what I wrote. My intention was to point out that people who look "different" in China are not treated the same as those who "blend in."

By the way, I do not live in a four-bedroom apartment. I live in a small two-bedroom apartment with my husband and my two children. I do not live in a foreign apartment complex, but in a local complex with wonderful local friends. My lifestyle is very similar to my neighbors.

I'm honestly not sure if you're a troll or serious, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. First of all, communism is not the same thing as atheism. Nor are 20th century communist countries the same thing as communism. Communism is an economic system, which means that it does not say anything more about religion than capitalism does. It's basically coincidence that the people who decided to stage communist revolutions in the last century also happened to be atheists. Communism as an economic system has no problem with religion and does not favor atheism over other belief systems. Secondly, the leaders of The Soviet Union and China were not just atheists. Being an atheist just means someone lacks belief in God. The people who ran the Soviet Union and Communist China didn't just lack a belief in God: they thought they knew exactly how all people should live, which is why they decided to impose both communism and atheism on everyone. They also feared that religion would be a threat to their power, so they actively oppressed religious organizations because they feared they could build up power and overthrow the government. That being said, you have a point that atheists are not all as tolerant as they would like to think. I've heard many atheists claim that intolerance is one of the fundamental evils of religion--while at the same time acting very tolerant themselves towards religious people. In that sense atheism can sometimes act like a religion. Once someone is an atheist they sometimes feel the need to "evangelize" others into atheism, whether they choose to call it that or not. So, you have a point about atheists sometimes acting hypocritical. But, modern atheism doesn't really have much to do with Communist China or the Soviet Union, anymore than, say, Islam has to do with Al Qaeda or Christianity had to do with the Inquisition.

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If you stay in Shanghai or Beijing, you won't get many problems. Those are big cities, it's not like you're going to a small town in one of the provinces. People might give you a second look maybe since you wear a headscarf, but that is probably because they have not seen many Muslims. It's not like how some Americans think Muslim= terrorist. Most Chinese are atheists and do not care too much about your religion. There isn't a huge stereotype about Muslims in China.

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No discrimination towards religions, and foreigners.

It's absolutely fine to be Muslims in China, they won't treat you differently,

Chinese don't discriminate people worshipping gods different from them.

I don't think you'll have a problem. I live in Zhengzhou, Henan Province (a much less cosmopolitan city than Beijing!) and there are many Muslims (Chinese Muslims, and foreign Muslims, too). There are also plenty of restaurants serving up Muslim cuisine. Good luck!

There are at least 20 million Muslims in China. It will not be strange to see a Muslim in Beijing or Shanghai.

You will be fine.

I am not a muslim myself but have muslim friends. I stayed in Shehnzen 2 years and never saw anyone have any problems..I am told that Kumming has the best and cheapest university for learning Chinese, but of course Beijing or Shanghai will be more cosmopolitan and more accepting of minorities. I wish you luck, I am sure you wont need it. The Chinese people stare at all none-Chinese but you get used to it.

Muslims form a significant portion of the Chinese population.

There are several different ethnic groups in China which are all Muslim.

In Xinjiang, there are the Uighurs, the Kazaks, the Tajiks, Kgrygz, Uzbeks, etc.

In the rest of China most of the Muslims are Hui.

I live in a city with a large Hui population. From my experience discrimination is not a major issue.

I have several Hui friends, and their circles of friends include both Han and Hui.

Many of the Hui do not wear headscarves, but many do.

Many Han Chinese love to eat Hui and Muslim food.

I think you don't have much to worry about, especially if you look like a foreigner.