A review of Chinese ethnology in the past hundred years and its summary in the new era

Shengmin Yang

doi:10.1186/s41257-017-0002-y

Abstract

Ethnology has been introduced into China in the early twentieth century. Its hundred-year evolution can be divided into three phases: ethnology in the “Old China”; ethnology in the “New China”, and ethnology in the “New Era” (1978–2008). In the phase of “Old China”, relying on introducing the western approaches both in theory and methodology, the Chinese ethnological community offered courses of ethnology and anthropology in dozens of universities. In the 1950s, the early years of “New China”, Chinese ethnology became a branch of the Soviet school and made great contributions to ethnic identification, as well as studies on the society and history of ethnic minorities, providing the basis and reference for the “New China” government to formulate ethnic policies. During the “New Period”, after 30 years of isolation from the outside world, Chinese ethnology entered again into Western academia and became a member of the international ethnological society. Now, Chinese ethnology has been constructed as an open academic domain and lifted out of the stereotype based on a certain school or ideology. Moreover, it has established its own school with localized characteristic, that is, a historically functional school directed by Marxism.Before the “New Period”, ethnology was revoked due to its characteristic as a “bourgeois” and “revisionist” discipline, but Chinese ethnology has embarked on a most fruitful period of rapid growth since 1978. The past three decades also can be divided into three periods: a decade of restoration and reconstruction in the 1980s, a decade of early development and expansion of research scope in the 1990s, and the decade of golden development after the year 2000.

Highlights

Introduction and rudiment periodEthnology and anthropology were initially imported in China during the period from the late nineteenth century to about 1920, which was their flourishing period.The introduction of ethnology is directly related to the political situation of the country at that time
Kang Youwei, a leader of the Reform Movement, further held "pursuing a self-strengthening approach by drawing lessons from the result that a strong country always defeats a weak one", and advocated the large-scale translation of Western books. He insisted that "it is better to translate Western books into Chinese, so that the masses can understand Western approaches and build themselves into talents serving for the nation." (Kang, 1987)
The preliminary Marxist research and analysis of China’s ethnic issues, society and history laid a certain foundation for the popularization of Marxism in Chinese academia of ethnology and other social sciences after 1949

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and rudiment periodEthnology and anthropology were initially imported in China during the period from the late nineteenth century to about 1920, which was their flourishing period.The introduction of ethnology is directly related to the political situation of the country at that time. The majority of Chinese scholars accepted the theories of historical materialism and evolution, but the Marxist theories of class and political economics were hardly recognized, which was directly related to the anti-Communist, pro-Western policies of the Kuomintang Government and the isolation of Marxism by the whole society, including academia.

Results

Conclusion