As an emerging interdisciplinary subject, socio-cultural history has already been developing for over twenty years. A symposium on the subject, entitled "CASS Forum – The Fifth International Symposium on Modern Chinese Social History", was held in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, on the 24-26 of August. Experts from all over the country attended the symposium and took part in animated discussions centering on the theme of "social culture and social transformation in modern China". The symposium was co-hosted by the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and Hubei University.

Disagreements over basic theories

During the symposium,Guo Ying, the director of the Institute of History of Chinese Thought and Culture of Hubei University, explained that in the 1980s academic circles started engaging in theoretical and practical explorations of socio-cultural history, launching a new trend in the study of history. Guo pointed out that although many achievements have been attained, there are still some disagreements over the basic theories of socio-cultural history, and clarifying these issues will be conducive to promoting the further development of the discipline.

Guo claimed that unlike western socio-cultural history, which is sometimes regarded as "the rebellious image of social history", Chinese socio-cultural history has a naturally progressive relationship with social history and cultural history, in other words it deepens and enriches these two disciplines. Certain innovative ideas and ways of seeing are embodied in socio-cultural history, including a "bottom-up" research on society, a holistic and micro-level approach to research, and a dynamic integration of bibliographic retrieval and field research methods. This can broaden the amount of historical data sources in use and expand the understanding of these sources, and deepen some theories related to the transformation of the entire paradigm of historical research.

Expressing her view on the issue of how to place socio-cultural history as a subject, Li Changli, a researcher at the Institute of Modern History of CASS, claimed that research on socio-cultural history should pay attention to the disciplinary perspective and the effectiveness of the theoretical method, rather than the name of the discipline itself. Associate Professor Zhang Junfeng from the Research Center for Chinese Social History of Shanxi University suggested that as a new research paradigm in history, socio-cultural history has the ability to enlighten. At the current stage, socio-cultural history is still an extension of social history, which needs to create a benign interaction so as to give play to its own specific advantages.

Localizing imported theories

Liu Zhiqin, another researcher from the Institute of Modern History of CASS, stated that the introduction of theories and methodologies like western new social history and cultural history has played an active role in developing research on socio-cultural history in China. However these methodologies are not entirely suitable for China because they were created in a western cultural context, she added.

Regarding this issue, researcher Li Changli suggested that after introducing western theories to China, Chinese scholars should localize them according to the country's social and cultural context.

Researcher Liu Zhiqin explained that socio-cultural history regards lifestyle, social customs and folk culture as its research objects, and provides in-depth explanations and reflections on the process of interactions between different objects and different stages. She believes that this kind of approach to research can reflect the local characteristics of China’s traditional society and cultural attitudes, and that theories of socio-cultural history suitable for China will be produced on the basis of China’s rich and profound historical resources.

Liu expressed her view that concepts originating from Chinese history, such as the concept of etiquette and custom and the concept of daoqi ( the relationship between abstract principle and concrete objects) should be embodied in local socio-cultural history. Learning about the lives and thoughts of the Chinese people through the process of interaction between etiquette and custom is a research direction which scholars could follow, she suggested.

Research on quality of life to become a new highlight

All the attendees envisaged a new research direction for socio-cultural history. Professor Liang Jinghe from the School of History of Capital Normal University discussed the value to socio-cultural history of research on quality of life by expounding its theoretical, academic and practical significance. He explained that researching quality of life is an important task of contemporary historical studies, and a major vision for socio-cultural history. This is because exploring the basic definition of quality of life at different historical stages will have very important implications for knowing how different groups of people understand and judge this concept, as well as for understanding the historical, cultural and social principles behind this phenomenon.

Socio-cultural history can serve current and future social construction and development by researching some socio-cultural issues such as quality of life from the historical perspective, and therefore demonstrate the practical applications of historical research, explained Liang. As new academic achievements, values and functions are continuously emerging, research on socio-cultural history from the perspective of quality of life will become a new highlight of academia.

Li said that looking at the future of socio-cultural history, some historical propositions related to actual life might become important topics for this discipline. He added as an example that social governance, an important issue concerning the individual, society and country, has become an urgent issue for the innovation of China’s social administration.

Translated by Chen Meina

Revised by Gabriele Corsetti