A Study Of Place Attachment To Dongda Mosque Community In Kaifeng City

With the rapid development of China’s urbanization, the Hui nationality communities of citieswhich got the strong impact have faced with rebuilding and reconstruction, but the particularities are notfully considered in the process. Although living environment has been improved, but the original livingpattern has been scattered, causing many problems, such as the disappearance of religious belief, thecollapse of social network, the loss of the Hui nationality culture and the crisis of the national identity.Hence, the study of place attachment in Hui nationality communities could help reveal its mechanism of theman-environment relationship, and provide theoretical support for the renewal of the Hui nationality regionand the relocation of the Hui people.This paper selected the Dongda Mosque community in Kaifeng city as the research area. On thebasis of the conceptual framework of place attachment structured by foreign scholars, the paper structuredthe place attachment conceptual framework of Dongda Mosque community to reveal the complicatedmechanism of the man-environment relationship.According to the place attachment conceptual framework of Dongda Mosque community, thepaper used a semi-structured interview and questionnaire method, analyzed the questionnaire insociological and geographical terms, and concluded:(1) The inhabitants, whose proportion of the living length in their lives as a whole is higher, havehad more deeper affection to the Dongda Mosque community. The inhabitants of the districts that haveprosperous commerce or close to both mosque and market have had more deeper attachment to the DongdaMosque community.(2) The overall level of the inhabitants’ cognition is comparatively low. The main streets inside ofcommunity, e.g. Weizhong Back Street, Weizhong Front Street, Qingping East and West Street andQingping South and North Street, were the main sites of the local story occurred, they are also the maincommunicating space, and have higher community management. However, those small alleyways, e.g.Shunhe North Street and Shaoji Alley, have few pedestrians and information. Furthermore, the edge zones,like Neihuan Road and MuJiaqiao Avenue, have lower community management.(3) The overall level of the inhabitants’ religious belief is comparatively low, male religion is greater than female religion, moreover, the greater the inhabitants’ religious belief are, the deeper theyattach to the place. Neihuan Road and MuJiaqiao Avenue which are at the edge of community, theirinhabitants’ religious belief are greater than inhabitants inside the community. Qingping South and NorthStreet which is in possession of the Dongda Mosque, its inhabitants’ religious belief are greatest within thecommunity. Althought Wangjia Alley is in possession of the Wangjia Mosque, its inhabitants’ religiousbelief are weakest within the community.(4) The Dongda Mosque community is a acquaintance community which has very strongtradition. The dominating categories of inhabitants’ social relationship are relative and neighbourhood, andthe intensity of social relationship varies with age. Furthermore, the inhabitants show the very strong ethnicidentity, living around the mosque, convenient diet and friendly neighbors are the crucial intensifyingfactors, and bad living environment and backward development are the crucial weakening factors.(5) Wangjia Alley has formed an evident “subsidence zone” in the way of affection, religiousbelief and commerce.Probable innovative points: this paper researched the man-environment relationship in scale ofthe Hui nationality communities in city in place attachment terms, and enriched the empirical research thatapply domestic place attachment theory to the Hui nationality communities in city.