In 2010, Rabbi Dr. Chaim Simons wrote and self-published a book called Jewish Religious Observance by the Jews of Kaifeng China. This is an interesting work, and tries to untangle thorny issues that should be rather simple to figure out, given that they Kaifeng Jews were, well, Jews. Such as, did they wear tallit and tzitzit, prayer shawls with fringes, during services? Domenge reported that "they have no sacred clothing." Did Domenge just miss this?
The rabbi doctor does point out that the bracha, the blessing for wearing tefflin/tzizit, is found HUC 924-27 right after yishtabach (image above). This, in itself, does not prove that the Kaifeng Jews wore tallit/teffilin, but if they did they could have said that blessing from something other than memory.
Rabbi Dr. Chaim Simons work is interesting, but it suffers from a certain ahistorical blight. Like many studies of the Kaifeng Jews Community, Jewish practice is seen as static and somehow eternal, rather than something that is time bound a mutable. This tends to happen with scholar who are also rabbis: only the Kaifeng Jews get the historical treatment, and are therefore seen as lacking next to Eternal Jewish Law.
This is a difficult task, as we know nothing but the bare existence of other Chinese Jewish communities. Did they wear tallit/teffilin, or did they "have no sacred clothing" as the Jews of Kaifeng purportedly had? What about the Jews of Cochin? When, and at what time? When was wearing tallit/teffilin 'standard' for all Jewish communities?
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