| This thesis, from the perspective of ethnology, undertakes research of the living community of the Arabians in Yiwu, China through substantive ethnographic fieldwork in order to present the positive role the Arabians have been playing in the social development as well as the process of the urban diversity in Yiwu. In the meanwhile, the research mainly focuses on ethnic identity, religious life, social network, acculturation and transformation of the Yiwu Arabians and the Muslim communities connected by the public sphere.There are six sections in this thesis. The first section is the introduction part, outlining the origins, definitions and the literature review of the research; the second section retrospectively states the Silk Road, Arabian’s landing on China and the characteristics of the Arabians on the new Silk Road through the description of the Arabians in Xi’an and Guangzhou as well as the rising of Yiwu markets; the third section introduces the Arabians’ basic conditions in Yiwu in terms of population originality and social stratification, occupation, their daily life and marriage; the forth section focuses on the Arabians’ social network from such aspects as business network, education network, religious network, entertainment network; the fifth section centers on the challenges and opportunities of the Arabians in Yiwu as well as the comparison between the Arabian-immigration to China in history and the present day; the last section presents the conclusion of this research.Under globalization, the phenomenon of international immigrants is pervasive in the world, together with the significance of the immigrant issues, which has been drawing attentions from the academia. Given this, this research presents the general situations of Arabians in Yiwu so that the academia may have a clue about the international immigrants in China currently, especially the living conditions of those with strong religious traditions. |
