Graduate Student - Christian Missionaries among China's Muslims

Natalie Henshaw's Graduate Student Thesis

China has the second largest Muslim population in the world, but there has been little scholarly research conducted about this community. The chief exception were Christian missionaries who lived and worked among China's Muslim minorities from the 1930s through the 1950s. These missionaries provide some of the earliest and most comprehensive analyses of the Chinese Muslim population. 

These missionaries' writings appeared in journals like Friends of Moslems, Moslem World, and China's Millions during the time the Chinese Communists began their work in the countryside. Whereas the missionaries tried to convert the Chinese Muslims to Christianity, the Communists simultaneously worked to convert the peasants in the same areas to Marxism. How did the missionaries react? How did the Muslims react? What happened during the Japanese invasion to the Muslims, Communists, and missionaries? How did Chairman Mao Zedong treat these missionaries when he evicted them from the country? How did he treat the Muslims during these evictions?