Frame, Family Discourse, and Hui Muslim Identity

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study adopts Goffman’s Frame Analysis theory to examine the discursive identity construction of Chinese Hui Muslims. Excerpts from a conversation within a Chinese Muslim family were qualitatively analyzed, and two examples were presented to represent the ways that the participants use linguistic and discursive resources to construct a unique identity for Hui Muslims living in Han-dominated context of China. Four frames emerged in Hui Muslim family discourse, that is, the frame of parenting children, of strengthening parental authority and family hierarchy, of confirming Hui Muslim Identity, and of Islam education. These frames were laminated naturally and frequently by reframing and blending. They illustrated the ambitions and attempts of Chinese Hui Muslims to construct and maintain their ethnic and religious identity, which differentiated them from other non-Hui Muslims and non-Muslim Chinese people. Hui dialect, a communicative variety of Mandarin followed by Chinese Hui-Muslim families, plays an irreplaceable role of contextualization cues in the process of frame-shifting.