My thrill of seeking

About 130 years ago, a group of Hui Muslims from Northwest China's Shaanxi and Gansu provinces fled home after a failed rebellion against the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). They crossed the Tianshan Mountain in a severe winter and by the time they reached Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, about 70 percent of them had died on the road.

The descendents of those Hui people stayed in Central Asia but kept their language and culture. They are called Dungan (Donggan), which means "East of Gansu".

I had long been curious about the Dungan people, or the Hui people in diaspora, not only because of my interest in anthropology, but also because I myself am a member of the Hui ethnic group.