Dr Hew Wai Weng

He obtained his PhD from the Australian National University and has work and research experience in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States. 

His research interests include the intersections between ethnicity, religiosity, class and politics in Southeast Asia. He writes about Chinese Muslim identities, Hui migration, social media and Islamic preaching, political Islam and urban middle-class Muslim aspirations in contemporary Malaysia and Indonesia. 

From Lanzhou beef noodles to Chinese-style mosques, from Muslim gated communities to Muslim men's fashion, from radical online preachers to moderate Islamic movements, his works explores the diverse manifestations and practices of Islam in multiethnic and multireligious societies. 

Selected Publications:

Journal Articles

2024.  Idealized Past, Exclusivist Present: Right-wing Appropriation of the Decolonial Rhetoric in Malaysia. Critical Asian Studies, 56(4), 625–651. (co-author with Nicholas Chan) 

2024. ‘Urban, Modern and Islamic’: The Politics of Muslim Men’s Fashion in Malaysia. City, Culture and Society. Volume 38.

2018. Entangled Mobility: Hui Migration, Religious Identity and Social Capital in Malaysia. Issues and Studies: A Social Science Quarterly on China, Taiwan and East Asian Affairs, 54:1, 1-23. 

2018. The Art of Dakwah: Social Media, Visual Persuasion and Islamist Propagation of Felix Siauw. Indonesia and the Malay World, 46:134, 61-79. 

Books

2018. Chinese Ways of Being Muslim: Negotiating Ethnicity and Religiosity in Indonesia. Copenhagen: NIAS Press. 

Book Chapters

2024. The Making of Modern Halal Space: Shariah-compliant Hotels in Urban Malaysia and Indonesia. In Handbook of Global Islam and Consumer Culture, edited by Birgit Krawietz and François Gauthier. London & New York: Routledge, 197-210.

2020. The Battle of Bangi: The Struggle for Political Islam in Urban Malaysia. In Towards a New Malaysia?: The 2018 Election and Its Aftermath. edited by Faisal Hazis & Meredith Weiss. Singapore: NUS Press, 194-210.

2018. ‘Islamic Way of Urban Living’: Middle-Class Muslims Aspirations and Gated Communities in Periurban Jakarta. In Shaping Jakarta: Claiming Spaces and Rights in the City, edited by Jörgen Hellman, Marie Thynell and Roanne van Voorst. London and New York: Routledge, 195-213.