As all the Hui people in Northwest District are religious, the contents of the education to Hui girls before the Republic of China mainly focused on the Islam, but limitations were exposed in the religious education to Hui girls at the early Republic of China and a series of problems appeared, for example, the education to Hui girls broke away from the social development, the education was lagged behind the male religious education reform, the school enrollment rate was generally low, which inhibited the boys and girls in the same school. In such case, the cultural level of Hui females in the Northwest District was further behind that of females of other ethnic groups in the modern period. However, throughout the Hui education history of the modern China, there is an Islamic religious group which emphasizes the female education since its establishment. It is not restricted to religious education but puts stress on national education. Xidaotang was originated from Litan of Gansu Province. As one of the three sects of China’s Islam, it combines the traditional cultures of Islam and the Confucianism, unites all the Muslim-believed Hui people into an Ummah family to develop national education, takes advantage of its collective economy to vigorously develop schools of new-type education, especially the new-type primary schools for Hui girls. The new-type schools initiated by it for girls promote the education to Hui girls in Lintan area and also generate significant influence on the education to Hui girls in the neighborhood of Lintan and even the whole Northwest District. Therefore, the research of the new-type education to Hui girls initiated by Xidaotang is of important reference significance to the development of education to Hui girls in the contemporary period.At the early period of the 20 th century, the equal education between men and women was proposed in the liberation movement of women, so that the new-type schools for Hui girls appeared in all around China successively, but they still aimed at the girls of families at middle or upper class and the wide Hui girls still did not have the opportunity for school education. With geographic and economic advantages, Xidaotang achieved success in its development of collective economy and invested all the earnings into the public services and facilities of Xidaotang, in which the new-type education to Hui girls was a key task. Xidaotang’s new-type education to Hui girls experienced three historical stages, i.e. germination, development and maturity, and it exerted influence on the qualities, ideologies, social status and daily life of the local Hui people. At last, the author puts forward that the schooling experience of Xidaotang in new-type education to Hui girls can be taken as reference for the development of education to Hui girls in the contemporary period. |