Permitted and pure: Packaged halal snack food from Southwest China

Abstract

Abstract China is home to ten groups of Muslims comprising at least twenty million people. The largest of these groups, the Chinese Muslim Hui people, have benefitted from China’s rapid economic growth in the past three decades just like their non-Muslim fellow citizens. Along with the highly visible new mosques being built in Hui communities across China, Hui economic vitality is noticeable in the burgeoning halal food industry, from five-star restaurants to street kiosks, special sections in supermarkets devoted to halal products and most recently in the e-commerce market. This article examines the packaging of halal beef jerky produced and marketed specifically for that e-commerce market, as an example of the religious, social and economic vitality of Hui in Yunnan Province in southwestern China in the post-Mao era. The packages adhere to successful strategies employed by marketing designers, and they purposefully combine faith-based and traditional Chinese cultural themes and motifs with the kind of detailed product information and quality certification demanded by consumers in China and around the world who want quality food products that might also bring a sense of nostalgia, and have the disposable income to buy those products in online shopping venues.