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第40章 Developing Islamic Education and Studies(1)

In June 1982, the China Islamic Institute resumed recruiting students, and opened advanced, undergraduate and short term courses. Up till now it has educated 512 students from 8 ethnic groups including the Huis, the Uighurs, the Kazakhs, the Khalkhas,? Since 1983, 8 Islamic institutes have been set up successively in Shenyang, Lanzhou, Yinchuan, Beijing, Xining, Urumchi and Kunming. Furthermore, various advanced classes for training Imams were opened and Arabic schools were established in some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, such as the Kashgar Arabic School, Kezhou Arabic School and Huocheng County Arabic School in Xinjiang.

On September 25, 1981, “Muslims in China” magazine resumed publication; and in 1983, its Uighur language edition started publication, which is a bimonthly with a subscription of several hundred thousand. Acting as the mouthpiece of both theChina Islamic Association and of Chinese Muslims, the magazine plays a unique and irreplaceable role in serving Muslims throughout the country and voicing their wishes. “Studies on the Huis” is a comprehensive academic publication on the Huis‘ history, culture and social development, and started publication in the early 1990"s. In 1980, the full translation of the Holy Qur"an by Ma Jian was published by the Chinese Social Science Press. In 1986, making use of this version, King Fahd Holy Qur"an Printing complex printed an Arabic-Chinese bilingual Holy Qur"an and presented it to various countries, making it the mostpopular version in China. In 1988, “Rhymed Translation of the Holy Qur"an” by Lin Song was published by the publishing house of the Central University for Nationalities. In 1989, “Chinese- Arabic Bilingual Detailed Translation and Annotation of the Holy Qur"an” by Shams Tong Daozhang, an American Chinese, was published by Yilin Publishing House in Nanjing, and in 1999 its revised edition was published. Furthermore, Hui scholars have translated and published some other Islamic scriptures and academic works, among which what is worth mentioning is: Maimaiti Sailai translated the Holy Qur"an into the Uighur language and Abdul Aziz and Mohmaud translated the Holy Qur"an into the Kazakh language, these were published by Ethnic Press in 1987 and 1989 respectively.

To motivate academic research on Islam, a symposium presided in turn by 5 provinces and autonomous regions in the Northwest was held nearly every year with its first in Urumchi in November of 1980, and in Lanzhou of Gansu Province (1981), Xining of Qinghai Province (1982), Xi"an of Shaanxi Province (1983) and YinChuan of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (1986) successively. Each time the symposium would focus on a certain theme, and afterwards publish a collection of the thesis. The symposium that had been held 5 times, produced altogether 403

papers and monographs, which played a positive role in motivating academic research on Islam in China and exploring and sorting out documents and data. This regional symposium has been in practice up until now.

The International Seminar on the Huis‘ History and Culture is another important academic activity that has been held many times. The objective of the seminar is to enhance international exchanges on research on the Huis, develop traditional ethnic culture, promote ethnic unity, inspire ethnic enthusiasm, and pursue the development of economy, progress of society and prosperity of the culture in ethnic regions. Characterized by a strong sense of learning, broad coverage of sphere and rich possession of information, the seminar has attracted much attention from both academic circles and the media at home and abroad. “The 13th Seminar on the Huis’ History” held in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, in September of 2001 is one of the most successful ones. Focusing on the theme of the “Prospect of the Learning on the Huis in the 21st Century”, the Seminar suggested ways and means for the development of the Northwest.