The Making of a Sociology with Distinctive Chinese Characteristics

Abstract

Abstract: This article re-examines the recent history of Chinese sociology from a sociological viewpoint by adopting a perspective that transcends the official powerholders’ framework. It focuses on the period between 1978 and 2023, and offers a descriptive analysis of the six features of socialist sociology with distinctive Chinese characteristics under Xi Jinping’s regime. It also introduces the concept of “cooperation to resist” and identifies the subfields of sociology that are at risk of decline. The article contends that sociology in China has faced a crisis in the past decade due to its increased utilisation as a tool to support the authoritarian vision of China’s modernisation. Such a shift has constrained the discipline and limited the scope of its inquiries, so that it increasingly focuses on politically safe subjects and topics that avoid critical scrutiny. Consequently, such scholarship blurs the boundaries between academic knowledge and propaganda, ultimately compromising the quality of scholarly work in favour of political power.