Sociology In China Research Articles

Sociology in China

vior patterns seen among American Jews demonstrate that traditional forms of benefice persist in a new context. One example has already been cited, in the refusal of destitute parents to accept support from prosperous children. Another is the extensive cemetery and burial arrangements private and public. The attitudes toward proper burial are so strong that in New York City, at least, no Jew is buried in potter's field, because there is an organization which sees to it that the bodies of Jewish paupers are interred in the traditional manner. Perhaps the outstanding example is donation to charity, including not only the amount given but also the attitudes toward giving. It is well-known to all who have worked in charitable activities that the Jews contribute heavily of their services and money. In America, as in the shtetl, Jews feel it their responsibility to care for impoverished Jews. However, the salient point of acculturation is that for Jews in America the community has been extended to include non-Jews as well, while at the same time the patterns of giving have been ramified, and they also contribute to general charities and projects. To many Jews immigration to America meant a chance to identify with the larger community, and equally a wider horizon against which the patterns of giving could flourish. For some of them, as for their non-Jewish fellow citizens, the community has been so expanded that it embraces not only the United States, but the whole world.

The Sociological Movement in China

THE formation of the Chinese Sociological Society, known in Chinese as Chung Kuo Hsi Hui Hsueh Hsi, at a national convention held at Shanghai in February, 1930, and attended by more than two hundred delegates and visitors from all parts of China, marks another milestone in the history of the sociological movement' in China. The present paper is a brief account of this movement with an explanation of its purpose and its scope of work. It should be mentioned at the outset that the sociological movement in China is not a program of any single man or any single group of men, but is the outcome of a variety of efforts to develop the young science of sociology in China by unrelated groups of people. Like any other social or intellectual movement, the sociological movement aims at fulfilling certain specific needs in present-day China. It is hardly necessary to explain that there is tremendous sociological significance in what is going on in China. 'What are the principal causes of social disintegration in Old China? Why has China not been able to resist successfully the invasion of Western patterns of culture? What are the underlying principles of social changes in China? How do we find out these underlying principles? What are China's major social problems and how can they be solved? These questions are asked daily by millions of public-spirited and conscientious men and women in China.