Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Achievement Without Coherence: The Rise of Chinese Sociology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Chinese Sociology

Part of the book series: Sociology Transformed ((SOTR))

  • 406 Accesses

Abstract

In the formation of Chinese sociology prior to 1949, American influences were significant but gradually diminishing in the process of state-building. In the 1920s, overseas Chinese students were returning from America and elsewhere to found sociological associations and journals. Thanks to their linkages with the universities, foundations and voluntary associations, Republican sociologists made steady progress in the collection and analysis of social survey data. But the growth of Chinese sociology began to fluctuate with the expansion of higher education in the 1930s. Despite the standardization of curriculum and codification of knowledge, theoretical synthesis was increasingly decoupled from empirical studies. Impressive works in community studies were produced, but the sociological discipline as a whole failed to articulate a stable basis of knowledge production.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Arkush, R.David. 1981. Fei Xiaotong and Sociology in Revolutionary China. Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Au-Yeung, Chi-Ying. 2000. The Academic Sociologists and the State in Republican China: The Case of Sun Benwen. Unpublished thesis, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Hon-Fai. 2017. Civilizing the Chinese, Competing with the West: Study Societies in Late Qing China. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Xinhua. 2009. Liumeisheng yu Zhongguo Shehuixue [Overseas American Students and Chinese Sociology]. Tianjin: Nankai Daxue Chubanshe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, Lucie, and Alvin So. 1983. The Reestablishment of Sociology in the PRC: Toward the Sinification of Marxian Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 9: 471–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiang, Yung-Chen. 2001. Social Engineering and the Social Sciences in China, 1919–1949. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dai, Kejing. 1993. The Vicissitudes of Sociology in China. International Sociology 8 (1): 91–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dirlik, Arif. 1978. Revolution and History: The Origins of Marxist Historiography in China, 1919–1937. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirlik, Arif. 1989. The Origins of Chinese Communism. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirlik, Arif, et al. (eds.). 2012. Sociology and Anthropology in Twentieth-century China: Between Universalism and Indigenism. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fei, Xiaotong. 1939. Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley. London: G. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fei, Xiaotong. 1949. Earthbound China: A Study of Rural Economy in Yunnan. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fei, Xiaotong. 1979. The Growth of Chinese Sociology. In Fei Hsiao-t’ung, ed. J.P. McGough, 19–31. Sharpe: The Dilemma of a Chinese Intellectual, White Plains, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freedman, Maurice. 1962. Sociology in and of China. British Journal of Sociology 13 (2): 106–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gransow, Bettina. 2003. The Social Sciences in China. In The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 7, ed. Theodore M. Porter, and Dorothy Ross, 498–534. The Modern Social Sciences, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Harrel, Paula. 1992. Sowing the Seeds of Change: Chinese Students, Japanese Teachers, 1895–1905. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsiao, Hsin-Huang Michael. 1990. The Development of Sociology. In China and the West: Ideas and Activists, ed. David S.G. Goodman, 130–146. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, Yeo-Chi Ambrose, and Tse-Sang Wang. 1978. The Development and Death of Chinese Academic Sociology: A Chapter in the Sociology of Sociology. Modern Asian Studies 12 (1): 37–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, Guannan. 2012. The Synthesis School and the Founding of ‘Orthodox’ and ‘Authentic’ Sociology. In Sociology and Anthropology in Twentieth-Century China, ed. Arif Dirlik, Li Guannan, and Yan Hsiao-Pei, 63–88. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, Hanlin, et al. 1987. Chinese Sociology, 1898–1986. Social Forces 65 (3): 612–640.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Xin. 2007. Zhongguo Chengshi di Jieceng Jiegou yu Zhongchan Jieceng di Dingwei [Stratification Structure in Chinese Cities and the Positioning of the Middle Stratum]. Shehuixue Yanjiu [Sociological Studies] 6: 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ma, Rong. 1998. Institutionalization of Sociology in China. In Heritage, Challenges, Perspectives: Sociology in East Asia and Its Struggle for Creativity, ed. Lee Su-Hoon, 44–49. Montreal: Université de Montréal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, Douglas R. 1993. China, 1889–1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum, Arthur Lewis. 2015. New Perspectives on Yenching University, 1916–1952: A Liberal Education for a New China. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Roulleau-Berger, Laurence. 2016. Post-Western Revolution in Sociology: From China to Europe. Leiden: Brill.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, Benjamin. 1964. In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Su, Yunfeng. 2004. Qinghua Daxue Shisheng Minglu Ziliao Huibian, 1927–1949 [Compilation of Materials on Teachers and Students in Qinghua University, 1927–1949]. Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun, Benwen. 1948 [2010]. Dangdai Zhongguo Shehuixue [Contemporary Chinese Sociology]. Beijing: Shangwuyinshuguan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trescott, Paul B. 2007. Jingji Xue: The History of the Introduction of Western Economic Ideas into China, 1850–1950. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, Siu-lun. 1979. Sociology and Socialism in Contemporary China. London: Routledge and K. Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, Wenzao. 2010. Lun Shehuixue Zhongguohua [On the Sinicization of Sociology]. Beijing: Shangwuyinshuguan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xingtao, Huang, and Mingfang Xia (eds.). 2008. Qingmo Minguo Shehui Diaocha yu Xiandai Shehui Kexue Xingqi [Late Qing and Republican Social Survey and the Rise of Modern Social Sciences]. Fuzhou: Fujian Jiaoyu Chubanshe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yan, Min. 2004. Yi Men Xueke Yu Yi Ge Shidai: Shehuixue Zai Zhongguo [A Discipline and an Era: Sociology in China]. Beijing: Qinghua Daxue Chubanshe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Qingmei. 2015. Yanjing Xuepai de Zhishi Shehuixue Sixiang ji qi Yingyong [The Ideas and Practices of ‘Yanching School’ about Sociology of Knowledge: A Comparative Study on Wu Wenzao, Fei Xiaotong, and Li An-che]. Shehui [Chinese Journal of Sociology] 35 (4): 103–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yao, Chunan. 2006. Shehuixue zai Jindai Zhongguo di Jincheng, 1895–1919 [The Development of Sociology in Modern China]. Beijing: Sanlian.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yeh, Wen-Hsin. 1990. The Alienated Academy: Culture and Politics in Republican China, 1919–1937. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zarrow, Peter. 1990. Anarchism and Chinese Political Culture. New York; Oxford: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Qizhi. 2002. Wanqing Mingguo Shi [History of Late Qing and Republican China]. Taipei: Wunan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zheng, Hangsheng, and Yingsheng Li. 2003. A History of Chinese Sociology. Beijing: China Remin University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, New Territories, Hong Kong

    Hon Fai Chen

Authors
  1. Hon Fai Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hon Fai Chen .

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Chen, H.F. (2018). Achievement Without Coherence: The Rise of Chinese Sociology. In: Chinese Sociology. Sociology Transformed. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58220-1_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58220-1_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58219-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58220-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation