The Hui are one of the officially recognized ethnic groups of China. Most speak Chinese, and their Muslim faith has shaped distinctive customs, places of worship and food traditions. Hui communities are found throughout the country, with particularly significant populations in the northwest. Their mosques often combine Islamic religious functions with forms familiar from Chinese architecture. I encountered Hui communities during two journeys: in Xi’an in 2014 and in Dali and its surrounding villages in Yunnan in 2015.
In Xi’an, the former imperial capital and a historic crossroads of the Silk Road, I walked through the Muslim Quarter and visited two mosques. The Great Mosque was especially memorable for its courtyards, timber buildings and Chinese architectural language. The history of Islam in Xi’an stretches back many centuries, although the surviving buildings have been rebuilt and altered across successive dynasties. Arabic calligraphy and Chinese inscriptions testify to a long cultural encounter.
My visit to Xi’an coincided with Ramadan in 2014. This allowed me to observe daily life in the Muslim neighbourhood and photograph an iftar meal shared by the congregation at the Great Mosque. I remember the gathering not simply as a religious occasion but as a moment of hospitality and community. The iftar photographs also form a separate series in my archive.
When I returned to China in 2015, my travels took me to Yunnan in the southwest. In Dali, I photographed activities around the Xiaguan Mosque during Eid al-Adha. There I became acquainted with the imam. I told him about my wish to explore Muslim settlements farther south, particularly Donglianhua, a village associated with the old Tea and Horse Road.
The imam generously offered to drive me there. Together we travelled through several Muslim villages before reaching Donglianhua. His company made it possible to see places and meet people I would have found much harder to approach on my own. The journey was one of those unexpected opportunities that can transform a photographic trip.
The history of Muslim communities in Yunnan is intertwined with long-distance trade and the movements of people under the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. The Tea and Horse Road was not a single road but a network of caravan routes linking parts of southwest China with Tibet and neighbouring regions. Muslim merchants and caravan leaders were among those who participated in this commerce.
In Donglianhua, substantial courtyard houses and traditional buildings recalled the prosperity of trading families. I also visited a local museum devoted to the history of the old trade routes. Architecture, village streets and the traces of caravan life offered a different view of Hui heritage from the crowded streets of Xi’an.
These photographs bring together encounters made in two different years and two distant parts of China. I was interested in the people as much as in the buildings: their religious traditions, the spaces in which they gathered and the everyday life around them. Looking back, what remains most vivid is the welcome I received and the journeys that grew from a simple conversation.