Short Biography

Janice Hyeju Jeong is a postdoctoral researcher of the team “Conceptions of World Order and their Social Carrier Groups.” Her research interests include Islam in China, Sino-Arabian interactions, and history and anthropology. Her book manuscript explores the significance of Mecca, real and imagined, in sustaining multi-directional mobility of Chinese Muslim diasporas through the ruptures of the twentieth century. Jeong received B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Duke University and conducted fieldwork in China, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia. Born in Hawaii and raised in Seoul, Jeong has native fluency in Korean and English, and an advanced knowledge of Chinese and Arabic.

Research Project

This project investigates popularization and capitalization of the concept of 'Islamic world' at two key moments in the twentieth century when Chinese states sought new allies in West Asia - first in the inter-war period, then on the eve of the Cold War's end. It argues that at such moments of opening up, the notion of an interconnected Islamic world offered Muslim writers, bureaucrats, and commercial actors across China opportunities to enhance their social standing, build new hubs, and forge external networks. Chinese states' periodic reliance on transnational Islamic nexus and language, however, has been conveniently forgotten.