Fei Xiaotong (1910-2015), a world-renowned Chinese sociologist, talked with a girl knitting a bamboo curtain in the poor county of Guangzong, Hebei Province, in 1991 at the age 81.

The defining characteristic of early social research in China was its use of anthropology-based methodology.The methods that originated in the West have undergone innovation under the influence of Chinese culture and become part of the mainstream of Chinese sociology.

Sociology in China emphasizes community research, case studies and cultural understanding. These characteristics interact with each other, constituting the basis of the Chinese sociology,which first began taking shape in the Department of Sociology at Yenching University in Beijing in the 1930s. A predecessor of Peking University, Yenching University was one of the top colleges in the country and was distinguished for its considerable academic freedom. These disciplinary traditions still play a major role in the formation, development and transformation of sociology in China.

Community research

Community research fundamentally emphases the presence of researchers, operating within real human life space-time that can be seen with eyes, touched with hands and felt by heart. It is a type of longitudinal field study that requires researchers to observe a site in person. Scholars favor this method because it puts knowledge in a concrete three-dimensional space.

Anthropologists consider it a research method that falls within the category of field study. It is different from data collection through the use of surveys, big data and in-person interviews targeting groups or individuals.

In fact, early anthropologists attempted to delineate a distinction between social surveys and sociological surveys. Social surveys deal with superficial problems, while sociological surveys comprehensively explore problems by describing, comparing and analyzing them. Thus, sociological methodology is rooted in the early traditions of Chinese sociology that were based on anthropological method.

The core feature of community research is its capacity to analyze sophisticated problems from microcosmic perspectives. Its adoption and application to Chinese sociology is closely related to the influence of the early disciplinary traditions defined by Wu Wenzao, one representative of the first wave of Chinese social scientist. Also, Robert Park, the University of Chicago sociologist, and Radcliffe Brown, an English social anthropologist, came to China to lecture on comparative community research in the domain of anthropology. After that, a kind of community research that can be conducted by one person became popular, at least in Yenching University. The representative of this method is Fei Xiaotong.

From 1936 to 1938, Fei studied at the London School of Economics under the pioneer anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. He wrote his doctoral thesis based on earlier fieldwork studying the development of reeling industry in a village not far from where he was born and raised.

In the thesis preface, Malinowski spoke highly of his subject and confirmed Fei’s studies on his hometown and its anthropological significance to community research in civilized countries. The contribution no doubt is attributed to sociology with Chinese characteristics derived from Yenching University. In addition, A Study on Lineage in Yixu written by Lin Yaohua, the same age as Fei, is another significant work from that time. The study is also based on the unobtrusive observation of a small community.

After that, the use of community studies became widespread in sociological research. This methodology continues to guide village research. However, at the same time, it is limited by its narrow focus on villages, and researchers fail to review the broader context and evidence to gain better insights into Chinese culture. All of these should be on the basis of case studies.

Case study

Another characteristic of Chinese sociology is a preference for case studies. As a method, case studies offer us a perspective from which to observe social phenomena and deepen our understanding of society, allowing us to explore the relationships among people and affairs in the dimension of time.

Case studies come in a variety of forms. Both Fei Xiaotong and Lin Yaohua adopted the method in their studies Peasant Life in China and The Golden Wing: A Sociological Study of Chinese Family. The academic value of case study lies in its ability to achieve a deeper understanding of the subject. Surveys on social problems often reflect a single side of what we see and enable us to observe phenomena in the past. However, they can not capture the whole situation, because phenomena exist within the dimension of time.

The introduction of anthropological time extends the time axis, making research more complete. The extendedcase method is not a particular methodology. Anthropology enables us to see much in little while conceptualizing and forming associations with what cannot be seen. In this way, the sociological method is related to anthropology, which has greatly influenced early and current sociological studies in China.

It is impossible to count the number of interesting and inspiring studies that have been conducted with the method, through which the insight gained at one village is generalized to a broader area. The generalization of results creates understanding on a larger scale. If one village is considered as a case, then the comparison of two villages represent the start of a comparative regional study. Knowledge about China and the whole world can be gained through the examination of a small village. Accumulated cases can be generalized, but using the opposite method can never reveal adequate information about specific cases and details.

Therefore, case studies are naturally favored by social sciences devoted to interpreting society, individuals and culture. Mainstream sociology in China never deviates from case observation and analysis in qualitative studies or quantitative studies. Case studies help us understand all these crucial issues.

Our understanding of society increases with the accumulation of case studies. Individuals, society and culture all exist as diverse and abundant cases or events. Most importantly is that all these cases and events are connected in some way. We can discover and comprehend the relationships by tracking back the axis of time. Cases act as the connecting points, making all these relationships come into focus, which is why Chinese sociology chose this methodology in its early stages and continues to use it to this day.

Innovative transformation

Anthropology focuses on culture. Sociology in China has always emphasized the interpretation of Chinese culture, which can be seen in Fei’s book From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society. In it, he connects individuals with Chinese culture as a whole. A society that turns a blind eye to culture is weak, and studies that neglect cultural dimensions cannot bring about long and profound enlightenment.

Early Chinese sociologists all focused on Chinese culture, which bolstered observations and understanding of society. They explored connections among society, individuals and culture. In this aspect, both early and current Chinese sociologists have been paying closer attention to Chinese society and individuals.

Sociology in China must be in accordance with the country’s need for innovative transformation. In fact, it has undertaken transformation based on Chinese culture. The focus is to observe and interpret Chinese culture on a local level. Sociology in China has made the right choice by studying Chinese society as a whole taking in the tools of anthropology, which emphasizes local culture as the research method at the early stage.

The presence of researchers offers the world an interpretation of society, people and culture rather than pseudo-events in the textbooks. Studies of this kind will become a distinctive path in the future process of going global. All of these are on the basis of anthropology serving as both a methodology and an epistemology.

Zhao Xudong is from the Institute of Anthropology at Renmin University of China.