The Dongxiang ethnic minority received its name from the place it lives - Dongxiang. However, this ethnic group was not recognized as a minority prior to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The Dongxiang people were then called "Dongxiang Hui" or "Mongolian Hui ".

According to the 2000 census, their population numbers 513,805. The Dongxiang people are Chinese Muslims of Mongol descent mixed with various ethnic groups in the region. The Dongxiang people are an agricultural people who grow potatoes, wheat, maize and broad beans as well as hemp, rapeseed and other industrial crops.

Distribution:

Most of the Dongxiang live in the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture and neighbouring areas of Gansu Province in northwestern China, while other groupings can also be found in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Language:

The Dongxiang language, also referred to as the Santa language or Sarta language, is a Mongolic language spoken by the Dongxiang people in northwest China. In common with other Mongolic languages, Dongxiang is basically a Subject Object Verb language. In Linxia, however, under the influence of the Mandarin dialects spoken by the neighbouring Hui people, sentences of the Subject Verb Object type have also been observed.

Knowledge of Arabic is widespread among the Sarta, and as a result, they often use the Arabic alphabet to write down their language informally; however, this has been little investigated by scholars. As of 2003, the official Latin orthography for Dongxiang, developed on the basis of the system, used for the Monguor language, remained in the experimental stage.