Medicine and Muslim Modernity in China | John Chen

E365 | In the early twentieth century, Muslim modernizers all over the world were making new claims about Islam, and the Muslims of China were no exception. In this episode, we discuss the relationship of Southeast Asia to the emergence of a modern Chinese Islam. In a period often characterized in terms of non-Arab Muslims' rediscovery of the Middle East, John Chen shows how connections between Chinese Muslims (Hui) and diverse groups across the Indian Ocean also shaped the new Chinese Islam. The processes often considered to be Arabization were in fact multiregional exchanges. Delving especially into the histories of Islamic medicine in China, John illustrates how Chinese Muslim leaders, imams, and historians took to print, radio, and even to sea routes, to articulate new visions of identity in an emerging nation-state and a changing Islamic world. See more at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2018/07/muslim-medicine-modern-china.html John Chen earned his PhD in History from Columbia University in 2018. He is currently preparing a book manuscript based on his dissertation, "Islamic Modernism in China: Chinese Muslim Elites, Guomindang Nation-Building, and the Limits of the Global Umma, 1900-1960." Shireen Hamza is a doctoral student in the History of Science department at Harvard University. Her research focuses broadly on the history of science and medicine in the Islamicate Middle Ages, especially in the Indian Ocean world. Nir Shafir is a historian whose research explores the intellectual and religious history of the early modern Middle East, with a focus on material culture and the history of science and technology. He curates Ottoman History Podcast’s series on history of science in addition to being one of the co-founders of hazine.info, a website that explores the archives and libraries of the Islamic world. He is an assistant professor of history at UCSD. CREDITS Episode No. 365 Release Date: 2 July 2018 Recording Location: Berlin, Germany Audio editing by Shireen Hamza Music: "Qadim Praise in Yunnan," courtesy of Guangtian Ha and Sounding Islam in China Images and bibliography courtesy of John Chen available at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2018/07/muslim-medicine-modern-china.html