>>2095762
Hui were "created" through intersections of trade with Muslims in Central Asia. They were never animist, but an identity created through marriages of Arab or Persian traders to Han people, or the conversion of them to Islam. I don't know how it was strictly measured (ie, if a Han person officially "became" Hui if they said the full Allahu Akbar... pledge, or if it was only their descendants) but their existence in the Dynasties, was officially codified with the Ming as Muslims within China, while later would specify that they are Muslims with Han ethnicity, different than a Uyghur or Islamic Mongol
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/who-are-the-hui-people.html