{{Short description|Chinese scholar and activist}} [[File:白壽彝.jpg|thumb|Bai Shouyi]] '''Bai Shouyi''' ({{zh|s=白寿彝|t=白壽彝|p=Bái Shòuyí}}; February 1909 – March 21, 2000), also known as '''Djamal al-Din Bai Shouyi''',<ref>{{cite book|first=Dru C.|last=Gladney|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers |year=2004|isbn=1-85065-324-0 |title=Dislocating China: reflections on Muslims, minorities and other subaltern subjects |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ddddmhXofKoC|page=161}}</ref> was a Chinese ethnologist, historian, social activist, and writer who revolutionized recent [[Chinese historiography]] and pioneered in relying heavily on scientific excavations and reports. A Marxist philosophically, his studies thus take a very class-centric view and reasoning. Born a son of a [[Hui people|Hui]] merchant in [[Kaifeng]], he became literate in [[Arabic language|Arabic]] from his mother and aunt.
Bai argued for the need for increased awareness of Islam and Muslims by the Chinese population in general in 1937, since Muslims numbered 50 million in China alone and Western works were the only ones available for non-Muslim Chinese to study Muslims living right with them in China. He said Muslims in Western China could either stand as a "defensive wall" or "hinder ...national defence", depending on whether conduct to them was good or bad.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hUEswLE4SWUC&q=co+religionists+east+defensive+wall+belief+culture|title=China's Muslim Hui community: migration, settlement and sects|author=Michael Dillon|year=1999|publisher=Curzon Press|location=Richmond|page=85|isbn=0-7007-1026-4|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref>
He died in [[Beijing]] at the age of 91.
==See also== *[[History of China|Chinese history]]
==References== *Bai Shouyi et al. (2003). ''A History of Chinese Muslim''. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company. {{ISBN|7-101-02890-X}}. Cover page. {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bai, Shouyi}} [[Category:1909 births]] [[Category:2000 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century Chinese historians]] [[Category:Chinese ethnographers]] [[Category:Chinese Muslims]] [[Category:Historians from Henan]] [[Category:Hui people]] [[Category:Writers from Kaifeng]]
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