nexus: Belonging Research Network - Chinese Muslim Heritage Literacy: Meanings and Adaptations

Abstract:

The seminar explores the connections between the literacies of religious practice, food heritage, and artistic expression within Sino-Muslim communities in Mainland China. Ibrar Bhatt examines semiotic material prevalent in Sino-Muslim daily life and heritage practice, and discusses how signs of ‘Muslimness’ are displayed and manipulated, with respect to their ties to heritage and religion. He illustrates how Sino-Muslim heritage is expressed, constructed, and remembered through intertwined spheres of social activity. He concludes with a discussion of a new project in Hong Kong on how heritage literacy intersects with commercial conditions and population flows.

Biography:

Dr Ibrar Bhatt is Senior Lecturer in Education & Applied Linguistics at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) and formerly Director of the University’s MSc TESOL programme. He has research interests in literacy studies, education, and digital epistemologies. He held a Leverhulme Trust research fellowship (2021-2023) on Sino-Muslim heritage literacy in China, and is currently collecting data for a British Academy-funded study of heritage literacy in Hong Kong SAR. He is author of A Semiotics of Muslimness in China (Cambridge University Press, ‘Elements in Applied Linguistics’ series).