Muslim Attitudes toward Business in the Emerging Market Economy of China

Abstract

Chinese Muslims are a religious minority in a non-Islamic society that has been undergoing rapid economic and social changes. In the emerging market economy of China, Muslims hold various attitudes toward business. Based on 53 in-depth interviews with Muslim businesspeople in the capital city of Beijing, Zhengzhou in Central China, and Guangzhou in Southern China near Hong Kong, the authors find five distinguishable types of Muslim businesspeople: socially detached, socially engaged, pragmatic, traditionalist and secular. The different ways of being Chinese Muslim businesspeople offer valuable information for the understanding of the compatibility of Islam with modernity and with non-Islamic cultures.