Expanding Perspectives in the Study of Chinese Social History

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, the study of social history has become the most remarkable direction in the field of modern Chinese history. The research of modern Chinese social history has gone through three stages: disciplinary revival, system construction, and steady development. The era features of modern Chinese social history research mainly manifest in: prominent achievements in regional social history, with increasingly deepening theoretical research; the burgeoning research on modern rural history, moving towards in-depth exploration; and the attention-grabbing study of social gender history under new concepts. For traditional disciplines of modern Chinese history, the perspective of social history research has greatly expanded, mainly manifested in: breaking through traditional dogma, exploring new fields; shifting the perspective of observation, returning to the people themselves; and paying more attention to small events in the macro background, emphasizing a micro perspective.