1、1Exploration on Consuming Behaviors of the Hui People from the Perspective of Islamic Beliefs（Institute of Information Technology of Guilin University Electronic Technology, Guilin, Guangxi 541004, China） Abstract. As the world tends to change into a small village, the global economy puts forward pr
2、essing needs on amalgamation and communication of all ethnic groups. In a sense, all ethnic groups in the world play the role of consumers to different extent, and the Hui nationality is naturally one of them. For this reason, by starting from the Islamic beliefs and consumer advocates of the Hui pe
3、ople, the author carries out an analysis on the unique personality and psychological characteristics of the Hui people, and also preliminarily explores their consuming psychology and behavior further. Key words: The Hui Nationality; Islamic Beliefs; Consuming Behaviors; Consumer Psychology 1 Introdu
4、ction Generally speaking, the influences of religion on consuming behaviors can be classified into direct influences and indirect influences. The direct influences mean that the life ways and 2consuming behaviors of people are directly limited or constrained through all sorts of laws, doctrines, and
5、 customs. The indirect influences mainly refer to playing an influence on consuming behaviors by relying on the propagations and diffusions of values. Haron, Ahmad and Planisek (1994), in their study on the banking presence factors of Muslims and non-Muslims consumers in Malaysia, discovered that th
6、ere had been a great number of similarities between the two researched groups of people in the user-aware of commercial banking as well as relevant products and services, and simultaneously 39% of the interviewed Muslims thought that Muslim religious belief is the only factor for them to choose to p
7、ay a visit to an Islamic bank. 2 Islamic Beliefs and Consuming Advocates 2.1 Islamic Beliefs Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity are called as three major religions in the world. The number of the believers of these three major religions has reached as many as billions, and they are mainly distributed
8、 in many countries and areas. Islamic principles primarily comprise of religious beliefs, religious obligations and benevolences. The most fundamental beliefs of Islam have been dogmatically summarized as “five 3beliefs“, and are called by Chinas Muslims as “five warrior attendants“. 2.1.1 Believing
9、 in Allah Allah is the God of Muslims. In Islam, it is believed that everything in the universe is the creation made by Allah. He is God, and the only God. 2.1.2 Believing in the Messengers In Islam, the people, who are enlightened by Allah and simultaneously propagandize the religious doctrines of
10、Islam, are called by Muslims as persons of foresight, namely the messengers. Allah used to send different kinds of messengers to propagate the doctrines of Islam to the mans world, including Adam, Noah, Moses and Jesus. Fadel Muhammad was the last and also the greatest messenger that was sent by All
11、ah. 2.1.3 Believing in the Central Religious Texts Allah used to make multiple central religious texts falling in different nationalities in the world. The Quran was the last revelation made by Allah, and also the most complete, the most reliable and the most sacred central religious texts of Islam.
12、 2.1.4 Believing in Angels Allah created everything in the world with seven days, including the four major angels that were specially created from the light. These angels are pure thoroughly, and have the 4ability to change constantly. Generally, angels are creatures with far-reaching supernatural p
13、ower. 2.1.5 Believing in a Life after Death In Islam, it is believed that the life of people in the current world is only temporary, and there exists a life after death. The day will eventually come to the end of the current world. In other words, the end of the world or the Judgment Day will come s
14、ome day. To that day, all the dead will be brought back to life, and will be judged by Allah in accordance with the good and the evil that they conduct during their lifetime: the people doing the good will be sent to paradise, but those who do the evil will be sentenced to going to hell. This is the
15、 so-called “retributive justice“, which is advocated in Buddhism. However, in jihads, the martyrs are allowed to directly live in the kingdom of paradise, but unnecessary to wait for the Judgment Day. 2.2 Consuming Advocates According to the beliefs of Islam, the practices extended from these basic
16、beliefs include five pillars, which are testimony, prayer, fasting, alms-giving and pilgrimage. 5Therefore, the consuming advocates of the Islamic nation are formed based on these five pillars. 2.2.1 Consumption to be Modest In the enjoyment of life, the Islamic people advocate abstinence, which mea
17、ns that everything shall be free from prejudice not excessively or insufficiently, thus allowing for unforeseen circumstances and keeping calmly complacent. 4 Characteristics of Consuming Behaviors of the Hui People 4.1 Characteristics of Food Consuming The diet ritual of the Hui nationality has pla
18、yed a very important influence on the food eating of the Hui people. The diet structure of the Hui nationality is unique among the ethnic groups of China. The people in the Hui nationality pay high attention to health, cleanliness as well as sanitation, and also strictly abide by the rules formed in
19、 Islam. All these are popular among the Hui people throughout the country. They do not eat any unclean things. For example, the animals dying naturally, blood, pork, as well as the animals skilled, strangled, beaten, fell, electrocuted, and leftover by other animals are refrained to eat by them. The
20、 people in the Hui nationality think that all things from the dead will be poisonous. 6This is because all living things possess two natures: the original nature and the temperament nature. The original nature plays a beneficial role in the life of people, but temperament nature is harmful to human
21、beings because it is generated from animal desires that are characterized with greed, evil, addiction and lust, which has the ability to make people tired in heart. Therefore, the Hui people think that relevant animals can be eaten only if they are slaughtered normally. Driven by the consuming ideas
22、 of Islam, the unique consuming motivation is formed in the Hui nationality. In the motivation, the people in the Hui nationality make purchase decisions, take action on how to buy, and carry out evaluations on purposes. Then, a complete buying behavior is done in a real sense. As for the consumers
23、from the Hui nationality, because of the their beliefs and especially the diet belief, on Islam, they will never generate any consuming motivation to buy as sausages, blood sausage and roast pork that are seen by other nations as delicious food, no matter how the outside world injects stimulations o
24、n them. On the contrary, a rebellious attitude will be produced in 7the inner world of the Hui people, thus bringing hurts to their self-esteem. 4.2 Characteristics of Religious Consuming Religious consumption accounts for a significant proportion in the daily life consumption of people in the Hui n
25、ationality. For example, the Hui people living in an area believe in Islam: they will construct mosques after living becomes stable, and also carry out a large number of activities about alms-giving and donation with religious characteristics. This gives rise to the economic burden on the Hui people
26、 in some areas, and subsequently plays a negative effect on their life quality. In addition, because of the religious influences, religious holiday consumption also occupies a dominant position in their consuming life. The largest holiday Corban Festival of the Hui nationality can be taken as an exa
27、mple here. Corban Festival is originated from Arabic language, and also can be named as Eid alAdha, Festival of Sacrifice, and Allegiance Festival. According to Islamic rules, early December is a period of time for Muslims to carry out religious lessons and pilgrimage in Mecca and the Corban Festiva
28、l is celebrated on the last day (i.e. December 10). Before festival, the people in the Hui nationality always do some cleaning indoor and outdoor and make 8festival food such as incense oil food and fried dough twists. During the dawn of festival, the people in the Hui nationality will have a bath,
29、incense indoor and wear clean festival clothes, and then happily participate in festival held in mosque. After the end of ceremony, ritual slaughter is held, and families with good economic conditions will have one sheep slaughtered, and some have one cattle or camel slaughtered together. The meat f
30、rom the slaughtering is generally divided into three parts: one for self eating, one for neighbors or relatives, and the last given to the poor. After the end of ritual slaughter, the people in the Hui nationality will pay a visit to friends and relatives, present holiday foods with each other, and
31、send blessings door by door. In Corban Festival, almost all families with conditions will have some animals slaughtered for making some foods such as incense oil and fried food with the national characteristics and presenting mutually or giving them to others. In daily communication, the gifts that
32、the Hui people bring to relatives and neighbors are things related to food as well. Therefore, it can be seen that the consuming behaviors of the people in the Hui nationality have been directly influenced because the idea of moderate consumption is advocated in Islam. 9Due to the alms-giving and ta
33、x doctrines in beliefs, Muslims advocate a moderate consumption in the communication between relatives and neighbors. Just because of the characteristics in life consuming, the people from the Hui nationality can live a happy live throughout the country, and also generate common psychology and group norms when they are living together in some areas with other nationalities. Then, the common psychology formed in the minds of the Hui people will transition to a national consciousness, which will be permanent in tens of thousands of years.
