Members

Tatsuya was fascinated by Chinese history throughout high school. He so enjoyed reading Romance of Three Kingdoms and Chin Shunshin’s novels on Chinese historical themes that selecting oriental history as his specialization in university was automatic. He subsequently became fascinated in Islamic history whilst learning Turkish, Persian, and Arabic in addition to Chinese. Studying the history of Islam in China became the means of advancing and linking these interests. He sees the history of Chinese Islam as a record of the dialogues between Islamic and Chinese civilizations, a source of wisdom for multiple dialogues across the world’s civilizations unfolding today. The research aim is to better understand how Chinese Muslims developed their Islam in modern China: a response to Islamic reformism originating in south-west Asia and the modernization of China.