Sociology and Anthropology in Twentieth Century China

Sociology and Anthropology in Twentieth Century China
Author: Arif Dirlik
Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2012-02-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9629964759

Within this text, the contributors provide a historical perspective on the development of anthropology and sociology since their introduction to Chinese thought and education in the early twentieth century, with an emphasis on the 1930s and 1980s. The authors offer different windows on theoretical and research agendas of anthropologists and sociologists of the PRC and Taiwan, shaped as much by their political context as by disciplinary training. In examining the careers of several individual scholars, they also make note not only of their creative contributions, but also of the resonance of their intellectual concerns with contemporary issues in sociology and anthropology (culturalism, frontiers, women). Finally, the volume is organized loosely around the problem of how to translate these disciplines into a Chinese context(s), the issues of "indigenization" (bentuhua) or "making Chinese" (Zhongguohua), which have haunted the two disciplines since their establishment in the 1930s because of the contradictory expectations that they generate. This is where the case of China resonates with similar concerns in other societies where the disciplines were imported from abroad as products of a Euro/American capitalist modernity, conflicting with aspirations to create their own localized alternative modernities.

The Making of the Human Sciences in China

The Making of the Human Sciences in China
Author: Howard Chiang
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 565
Release: 2019-05-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004397620

This volume provides a history of how “the human” has been constituted as a subject of scientific inquiry in China from the seventeenth century to the present. Organized around four themes—“Parameters of Human Life,” “Formations of the Human Subject,” “Disciplining Knowledge,” and “Deciphering Health”—it scrutinizes the development of scientific knowledge and technical interest in human organization within an evolving Chinese society. Spanning the Ming-Qing, Republican, and contemporary periods, its twenty-four original, synthetic chapters ground the mutual construction of “China” and “the human” in concrete historical contexts. As a state-of-the-field survey, a definitive textbook for teaching, and an authoritative reference that guides future research, this book pushes Sinology, comparative cultural studies, and the history of science in new directions.

Paradigm Shifts in Chinese Studies

Paradigm Shifts in Chinese Studies
Author: Shiping Hua
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2022-02-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 9811680329

This book is a study of the change and continuity in paradigms in China studies, both inside and outside of China. In the last few years, the United States and China appeared to be moving in the direction of “de-coupling,” indicating that the engagement policy with China in the last four decade is ending. The “modernization theory” that is the theoretical foundation of the engagement policy has proved to be insufficient. This situation calls for a reexamination of the field of China studies. Historically, scholarly paradigms shifts often went hand in hand with drastic social change. As we have entered an era of great uncertainty, it is constructive to reflect on the paradigms in China studies in the past and explore the possibility of new paradigms in the future. How are the shifts of major theories, methods and paradigms in China studies in the west related to social change? How did some of China’s paradigms impact on the country’s social change and developments? This book will appeal to a wide readership, including scholars and graduate students, upper division undergraduate students of China studies, Asian studies.

Chinese Sociology

Chinese Sociology
Author: Hon Fai Chen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2017-09-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137582200

This book examines the institutional development of Chinese sociology from the 1890s to the present. It plots the discipline’s twisting path in the Chinese context, from early Western influences; through the institutionalization of the discipline in the 1930s-40s; its problematic relationship with socialism and interruptions under Marxist orthodoxy and the Cultural Revolution; its revival during the 1980s-90s; to the twin trends of globalization and indigenization in current Chinese sociological scholarship. Chen argues that in spite of the state-building agenda and persistent efforts to indigenize the discipline, the Western model remains pervasively influential, due in large part to the influence of American missionaries, foundations and scholars in the formation and transformation of the Chinese sociological tradition. The history of Chinese sociology is shown to be a contingent process in which globally circulated knowledge, above all the American sociological tradition, has been adapted to the changing contexts of China. This engaging work contributes an important country study to the history of sociology and will appeal to scholars of Chinese history and disciplinary historiography, in addition to social scientists.

Anthropology Of China, The: China As Ethnographic And Theoretical Critique

Anthropology Of China, The: China As Ethnographic And Theoretical Critique
Author: Stephan Feuchtwang
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2016-07-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1783269855

Putting China into the context of general anthropology offers novel insights into its history, culture and society. Studies in the anthropology of China need to look outwards, to other anthropological areas, while at the same time, anthropologists specialised elsewhere cannot afford to ignore contributions from China. This book introduces a number of key themes and in each case describes how the anthropology and ethnography of China relates to the surrounding theories and issues. The themes chosen include the anthropology of intimacy, of morality, of food and of feasting, as well as the anthropology of civilisation, modernity and the state.The Anthropology of China covers both long historical perspectives and ethnographies of the twenty-first century. For the first time, ethnographic perspectives on China are contextualised in comparison with general anthropological debates. Readers are invited to engage in and rethink China's place within the wider world, making it perfect for professional researchers and teachers of anthropology and Chinese history and society, and for advanced undergraduate and graduate study.

The Global Social Sciences

The Global Social Sciences
Author: Michael Vessuri, Hebe Kuhn
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2016-09-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3838208935

The European social sciences tend to absorb criticism that has been passed on the European approach and re-label it as a part of what the critique opposes; criticism of European social sciences by “subaltern” social sciences, their “talking back”, has become a frequent line of reflection in European social sciences. The re-labelling of the critique of the European approach to social sciences towards a critique from “Southern” social sciences of “Western” social sciences has somehow turned “Southern” as well as “Western” social sciences into competing contributors to the same “globalizing” social sciences. Both are no longer arguing about the European approach to social sciences but about which social thought from which part of the globe prevails. If the critique becomes a part of what it opposes, one might conclude that the European social sciences are very adaptable and capable of learning. One might, however, also raise the question whether there is anything wrong with the criticism of the European social sciences; or, for that matter, whether there is anything wrong with the European social sciences themselves. The contributions in this book discuss these questions from different angles: They revisit the mainstream critique of the European social sciences, and they suggest new arguments criticizing social science theories that may be found as often in the “Western” as in the “Southern” discourse.

Internationalizing the Social Sciences in China

Internationalizing the Social Sciences in China
Author: Meng Xie
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2022-03-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9811901635

The current social reality and changing global forces and spaces are inspiring the rethinking, refining, and re-empowering of the world social sciences to broach the frontiers of human knowledge, enhance mutual understanding across cultures and civilizations, and shape a better world. Taking Tsinghua University’s sociology as a case, this book concentrates on how internationalization shapes disciplinary development in a global context of asymmetrical academic relations. This inquiry is set amidst China’s dramatic economic, social, political, and cultural transformations, as well as the institutional reforms in this Chinese flagship university. This book seeks to probe how Chinese and Western knowledge, institutions, and cultures are integrated in the ongoing process of internationalization and concentrates on the disciplinary evolution of Tsinghua’s sociology—intellectually, institutionally, and culturally—drawing on top-down higher education policy and bottom-up perceptions and experiences of Tsinghua’s social scientists. This book highlights that higher education internationalization is an evolving process whose advanced phase would require Chinese social scientists to bring China to the world. It is time for Tsinghua University to reassess the long-term impact of internationalization on its academic disciplines and provide sufficient support for the development of the social sciences.This book will attract academics, practitioners, and postgraduate students interested in higher education internationalization, international academic relations, global constellation and distribution of academic power, academic knowledge production, and the development and intellectual influences of the Chinese social sciences.

Narrating Southern Chinese Minority Nationalities

Narrating Southern Chinese Minority Nationalities
Author: Guo Wu
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2019-01-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811360227

Based on fieldwork, archival research, and interviews, this book critically examines the building of modern Chinese discourse on a unified yet diverse Chinese nation on various sites of knowledge production. It argues that Chinese ideology on minority nationalities is rooted in modern China's quest for national integration and political authority. However, it also highlights the fact that the complex process of conceptualizing, investigating, classifying, curating, and writing minority history has been fraught with disputes and contradictions. As such, the book offers a timely contribution to the current debate in the fields of twentieth-century Chinese nationalism, minority policy, and anthropological practice.

The ALA Guide to Researching Modern China

The ALA Guide to Researching Modern China
Author: Yunshan Ye
Publisher: American Library Association
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2014-03-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0838912095

As China has evolved into an economic superpower, interest in its culture and current place in the world has skyrocketed; China Studies are now taught in almost every college or university in the U.S., as well as in many junior high and high schools. Covering modern China, not just Chinese culture from an historical perspective, this important new book fills a sizeable gap in the literature. Originating as a Carnegie Whitney Award-winning book project, Ye’s research guide goes beyond a mere list of print resources to reflect the predominant role of digital resources in the changing landscape of scholarly research, teaching critical information literacy concepts and skills in the field of China Studies by Sketching in basic facts and figures of Chinese history and culture from antiquity to the present Detailing key English- and Chinese-language resources in literature, government, statistics, art, film, history, philosophy, religion, economics, law, politics, and more Offering strategies for finding research sources like articles and dissertations, as well as primary sources such as government documents and archives Including guidance on how to acquire print and electronic resources in Chinese This richly detailed, up-to-date work will guide researchers at all levels to the most important resources in the field of Modern China Studies.