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| caption = Fei at the LSE in 1986.
| caption = Fei at the LSE in 1986.
| office = [[Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress|Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress]]
| office = [[Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress|Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress]]
| term_start = 8 April 1988
| term_start = April 8, 1988
| term_end = 16 March 1998
| term_end = March 16, 1998
| 1blankname = Chairman
| 1blankname = Chairman
| 1namedata = [[Wan Li]]<br>[[Qiao Shi]]
| 1namedata = [[Wan Li]]<br>[[Qiao Shi]]
| office1 = [[Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference|Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]]
| office1 = [[Vice Chairperson of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference|Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference]]
| term_start1 = 17 June 1983
| term_start1 = June 17, 1983
| term_end1 = 10 April 1988
| term_end1 = April 10, 1988
| 1blankname1 = Chairwoman
| 1blankname1 = Chairwoman
| 1namedata1 = [[Deng Yingchao]]
| 1namedata1 = [[Deng Yingchao]]
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}}
}}


{{sociology}}
{{sociology}}{{Liberalism in China}}

'''Fei Xiaotong''' or '''Fei Hsiao-tung''' (November 2, 1910 – April 24, 2005) was a Chinese [[anthropologist]] and [[sociologist]]. He was a pioneering researcher and professor of [[sociology]] and [[anthropology]]; he was also noted for his studies in the study of China's [[ethnic groups]] as well as a [[social activist]]. Starting in the late 1930s, he and his colleagues established Chinese sociology and his works were instrumental in laying a foundation for the development of sociological and anthropological studies in China, as well as in introducing social and cultural phenomena of China to the international community. His last post before his death in 2005 was as Professor of Sociology at [[Peking University]].<ref name="BIO">{{Cite book| last=Boorman | first=Howard L. | title=Biographical Dictionary of Republican China | location=New York | publisher=Columbia University Press | year=1968 | article="Fei Hsiao=t'ung | volume=II | pages=17–19}}</ref>
'''Fei Xiaotong''' or '''Fei Hsiao-tung''' (November 2, 1910 – April 24, 2005) was a Chinese [[anthropologist]] and [[sociologist]]. He was a pioneering researcher and professor of [[sociology]] and [[anthropology]]; he was also noted for his studies in the study of China's [[ethnic groups]] as well as a [[social activist]]. Starting in the late 1930s, he and his colleagues established Chinese sociology and his works were instrumental in laying a foundation for the development of sociological and anthropological studies in China, as well as in introducing social and cultural phenomena of China to the international community. His last post before his death in 2005 was as Professor of Sociology at [[Peking University]].<ref name="BIO">{{Cite book| last=Boorman | first=Howard L. | title=Biographical Dictionary of Republican China | location=New York | publisher=Columbia University Press | year=1968 | article="Fei Hsiao=t'ung | volume=II | pages=17–19}}</ref>


==Early years==
==Early years==
Fei Xiaotong was born in [[Wujiang (Jiangsu)|Wujiang]] County of [[Jiangsu]] province in China on November 2, 1910. His world was one plagued with political corruption and abject poverty. He grew up in a gentry but yet not wealthy family. His father, Fei Pu'an ({{lang|zh|费朴安}}) was educated in the Chinese classics, earned a ''shengyuan'' civil service degree, studied in Japan, and founded a middle school. Fei's mother, Yang Renlan ({{lang|zh|杨纫兰}}), the Christian daughter of a government official and also highly educated for her time, established a nursery school in Wujiang which Fei attended. Her brothers include Chinese politician Yang Qianli (father of Hong Kong director and lyricwriter [[Evan Yang]]), Architect Yang Xiliu (S. J. Young), Chinese-American animator [[Cy Young (animator)|Cy Young]], and entrepreneur Yang Xiren.<ref>[http://www.wujiangtong.com/webPages/DetailNews.aspx?id=9875 同里骄杨 (in Chinese)]</ref>
Fei Xiaotong was born in [[Wujiang (Jiangsu)|Wujiang]] County of [[Jiangsu]] province in China on November 2, 1910. His world was one plagued with political corruption and abject poverty. He grew up in a gentry but yet not wealthy family. His father, Fei Pu'an ({{lang|zh|费朴安}}) was educated in the Chinese classics, earned a ''shengyuan'' civil service degree, studied in Japan, and founded a middle school. Fei's mother, Yang Renlan ({{lang|zh|杨纫兰}}), the Christian daughter of a government official and also highly educated for her time, established a nursery school in Wujiang which Fei attended. Her brothers include Chinese politician Yang Qianli (father of Hong Kong director and lyricwriter [[Evan Yang]]), Architect Yang Xiliu (S. J. Young), Chinese-American animator [[Cy Young (animator)|Cy Young]], and entrepreneur Yang Xiren.<ref>[http://www.wujiangtong.com/webPages/DetailNews.aspx?id=9875 同里骄杨 (in Chinese)]</ref>


==Career in academic sociology==
==Career in academic sociology==
[[File:Fei Xiaotong 01.jpg|thumb|200px|Fei Xiaotong in [[Yenching University]]]]
[[File:Fei Xiaotong 01.jpg|thumb|200px|Fei Xiaotong in [[Yenching University]]]]


At missionary-founded [[Yenching University]] in [[Beiping]], which had China's best sociology program, he was stimulated by the semester visit of [[Robert E. Park]], the University of Chicago sociologist. For an M.A. in anthropology, Fei went to nearby [[Tsinghua University]] where he studied with [[Pan Guangdan]] and learned fieldwork methods from a [[White émigré|White Russian]], [[S. M. Shirokogoroff]]. Fei's first fieldwork experience, in the rugged mountains of [[Guangxi]] province in the far south, ended tragically after Fei's leg was crushed by a tiger trap, and his young bride Wang Tonghui ({{lang|zh|王同惠}}) died seeking help.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/chapter/87663/56305.html |script-title=zh:“人天无据，灵会难期”：费孝通与王同惠 |publisher=Sina |language=zh |date=2009-03-31 |access-date=2013-10-22}}</ref>
At missionary-founded [[Yenching University]] in [[Beiping]], which had China's best sociology program, he was stimulated by the semester visit of [[Robert E. Park]], the University of Chicago sociologist. For an M.A. in anthropology, Fei went to nearby [[Tsinghua University]] where he studied with [[Pan Guangdan]] and learned fieldwork methods from a [[White émigré|White Russian]], [[S. M. Shirokogoroff]]. Fei's first fieldwork experience, in the rugged mountains of [[Guangxi]] province in the far south, ended tragically after Fei's leg was crushed by a tiger trap, and his young bride Wang Tonghui ({{lang|zh|王同惠}}) died seeking help.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://vip.book.sina.com.cn/chapter/87663/56305.html |script-title=zh:“人天无据，灵会难期”：费孝通与王同惠 |publisher=Sina |language=zh |date=2009-03-31 |access-date=2013-10-22}}</ref>


==="Functional" anthropology===
==="Functional" anthropology===
From 1936 to 1938 Fei studied at the [[London School of Economics]] under the pioneer anthropologist [[Bronisław Malinowski]]. "From Malinowski and [[Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown|A.R. Radcliffe-Brown]], Fei learned to focus on the functional interrelationships of various "parts" of a community and on the meaning of a culture as seen by its members. He devised survey methods which incorporated the [[Functionalism (sociology)|functional approach]] ... "<ref name="BIO" />{{Rp|17}} Fei wrote his 1938 PhD thesis, based on earlier fieldwork in [[Kaixiangong]] (Chinese:{{linktext|lang=zh-hant|開弦弓}}) village, China and published it as ''Peasant Life in China'' (1939).{{cn|date=May 2024}}
From 1936 to 1938 Fei studied at the [[London School of Economics]] under the pioneer anthropologist [[Bronisław Malinowski]]. "From Malinowski and [[Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown|A.R. Radcliffe-Brown]], Fei learned to focus on the functional interrelationships of various "parts" of a community and on the meaning of a culture as seen by its members. He devised survey methods which incorporated the [[Functionalism (sociology)|functional approach]] ... "<ref name="BIO" />{{Rp|17}} Fei wrote his 1938 PhD thesis, based on earlier fieldwork in [[Kaixiangong]] (Chinese:{{linktext|lang=zh-hant|開弦弓}}) village, China and published it as ''Peasant Life in China'' (1939).{{cn|date=May 2024}}


Among Fei Xiaotong's contributions to anthropology is the concept that [[Chinese social relations]] work through social networks of personal relations with the self at the center and decreasing closeness as one moves out. Among the criticisms of Fei Xiaotong's work is that his work tended to ignore regional and historical variations in Chinese behavior. Nonetheless, as a pioneer and educator, his intent was to highlight general trends, thus this simplification may have had significant justification for Fei's intent, even if they contributed to a bias in studies of Chinese society and culture.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
Among Fei Xiaotong's contributions to anthropology is the concept that [[Chinese social relations]] work through social networks of personal relations with the self at the center and decreasing closeness as one moves out. Among the criticisms of Fei Xiaotong's work is that his work tended to ignore regional and historical variations in Chinese behavior. Nonetheless, as a pioneer and educator, his intent was to highlight general trends, thus this simplification may have had significant justification for Fei's intent, even if they contributed to a bias in studies of Chinese society and culture.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
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===1950s and 1960s: Politics in command===
===1950s and 1960s: Politics in command===
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Fei played an important role in national intellectual and ideological life, and before long he began to hold a growing number of political positions. He was made vice president in 1951 of the Central Institute for Nationalities in Beijing (today, [[Minzu University of China]]), and in 1954 attended the First National People's Congress as a member of the Nationalities Affairs Commission.<ref name="BIO" />{{Rp|18}}
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Fei played an important role in national intellectual and ideological life, and before long he began to hold a growing number of political positions. He was made vice president in 1951 of the Central Institute for Nationalities in Beijing (today, [[Minzu University of China]]), and in 1954 attended the First National People's Congress as a member of the Nationalities Affairs Commission.<ref name="BIO" />{{Rp|18}}


Soon thereafter, however, departments of sociology were eliminated (as a "bourgeois pseudo-science"). Fei no longer taught, and published less and less. During the “[[Hundred Flowers Campaign|Hundred Flowers]]” thaw of 1956–57, he began to speak out again, cautiously suggesting the restoration of sociology. But then the climate suddenly changed with the “[[Anti-Rightist Movement]].” In 1957, Fei stood with head bowed before countless assemblies to confess his “crimes toward the people.” <ref name="citation">citation?</ref> Hundreds of articles attacked him, not a few by colleagues, some viciously dishonest.<ref>by whom?</ref> Fei became an outcast, humiliated, isolated, unable to teach, do research, or publish. Twenty-three years of his life, he would later write, years that should have been his most productive period, were simply lost, wasted. At the height of the [[Cultural Revolution]], physically attacked by [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guards]], forced to clean toilets, he contemplated suicide.<ref name="citation"/>
Soon thereafter, however, departments of sociology were eliminated (as a "bourgeois pseudo-science"). Fei no longer taught, and published less and less. During the “[[Hundred Flowers Campaign|Hundred Flowers]]” thaw of 1956–57, he began to speak out again, cautiously suggesting the restoration of sociology. But then the climate suddenly changed with the “[[Anti-Rightist Movement]].” In 1957, Fei stood with head bowed before countless assemblies to confess his “crimes toward the people.” <ref name="citation">citation?</ref> Hundreds of articles attacked him, not a few by colleagues, some viciously dishonest.<ref>by whom?</ref> Fei became an outcast, humiliated, isolated, unable to teach, do research, or publish. Twenty-three years of his life, he would later write, years that should have been his most productive period, were simply lost, wasted. At the height of the [[Cultural Revolution]], physically attacked by [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guards]], forced to clean toilets, he contemplated suicide.<ref name="citation"/>


===1970s and 1980s: A 'second life'===
===1970s and 1980s: A 'second life'===
In the 1970s, Fei, internationally known, began to receive foreign visitors, and after Mao's death he was asked to direct the restoration of Chinese sociology. He visited the United States again and was subsequently able to arrange the visits to China of American social scientists to help with the gigantic task of training a whole new cadre of Chinese sociologists. In 1980 he was formally rehabilitated, and was one of the judges in the long, televised trial of the [[Gang of Four]] and others held responsible for the crimes of the Cultural Revolution.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
In the 1970s, Fei, internationally known, began to receive foreign visitors, and after Mao's death he was asked to direct the restoration of Chinese sociology. He visited the United States again and was subsequently able to arrange the visits to China of American social scientists to help with the gigantic task of training a whole new cadre of Chinese sociologists. In 1980 he was formally rehabilitated, and was one of the judges in the long, televised trial of the [[Gang of Four]] and others held responsible for the crimes of the Cultural Revolution.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
[[File:H.E. Fei Xiaotong (Alumnus) and Professor Maurice Bloch, 1986 (3982884269).jpg|left|thumb|277x277px|Fei Xiaotong and Professor Maurice Bloch, 1986]]
[[File:H.E. Fei Xiaotong (Alumnus) and Professor Maurice Bloch, 1986 (3982884269).jpg|left|thumb|277x277px|Fei Xiaotong and Professor Maurice Bloch, 1986]]
His 'second life' was more than ever that of the public intellectual, with important political posts and contact with policy makers. His influence is thought to have been important in convincing the government to promote rural industry, whose rapid growth in the 1980s raised the income of hundreds of millions of villagers all over China. Virtually every week in the 1990s his name was in the newspapers and his face on television. He traveled all over China, went abroad, to the US, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and elsewhere, and was showered with international honors: the Malinowski Award of the [[Society for Applied Anthropology]], the Huxley Memorial Medal of the [[Royal Anthropological Institute]], an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Hong Kong]], and other honors in Japan, the Philippines, Canada. He played a role in promoting and directing the reestablishment of sociology and anthropology in China, training scholars and developing teaching materials after thirty years of prohibition.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
His 'second life' was more than ever that of the public intellectual, with important political posts and contact with policy makers. His influence is thought to have been important in convincing the government to promote rural industry, whose rapid growth in the 1980s raised the income of hundreds of millions of villagers all over China. Virtually every week in the 1990s his name was in the newspapers and his face on television. He traveled all over China, went abroad, to the US, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and elsewhere, and was showered with international honors: the Malinowski Award of the [[Society for Applied Anthropology]], the Huxley Memorial Medal of the [[Royal Anthropological Institute]], an honorary doctorate from the [[University of Hong Kong]], and other honors in Japan, the Philippines, Canada. He played a role in promoting and directing the reestablishment of sociology and anthropology in China, training scholars and developing teaching materials after thirty years of prohibition.{{cn|date=May 2024}}


Fei is also known for his influential theory on [[ethnic groups in Chinese history]], which follows the tradition of [[Lewis H. Morgan]]'s stage-developmental evolutionism. A representative example of his work is Fei's 1988 [[Tanner lecture]] in Hong Kong, "Plurality and Unity in the Configuration of the Chinese Nationality." According to Fei, the [[Huaxia]] became a true ethnic group, the [[Han (people)|Han]], during the [[Qin Dynasty]]. Afterwards, the Han became "a nucleus with centripetal force" with their stable agricultural society attracting and assimilating ethnic nomads from China's northern frontier such as the [[Qiang (historical people)|Qiang]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the people's Republic|edition=2|author=Gladney, Dru C|author-link=Dru C. Gladney|publisher=Harvard University Asia Center|pages=72–73}}</ref>
Fei is also known for his influential theory on [[ethnic groups in Chinese history]], which follows the tradition of [[Lewis H. Morgan]]'s stage-developmental evolutionism. A representative example of his work is Fei's 1988 [[Tanner lecture]] in Hong Kong, "Plurality and Unity in the Configuration of the Chinese Nationality." According to Fei, the [[Huaxia]] became a true ethnic group, the [[Han (people)|Han]], during the [[Qin dynasty]]. Afterwards, the Han became "a nucleus with centripetal force" with their stable agricultural society attracting and assimilating ethnic nomads from China's northern frontier such as the [[Qiang (historical people)|Qiang]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the people's Republic|edition=2|author=Gladney, Dru C|author-link=Dru C. Gladney|publisher=Harvard University Asia Center|pages=72–73}}</ref>


===The 1990s and 2000s: reminiscence and caution===
===The 1990s and 2000s: reminiscence and caution===
Above all, it was as a writer that Fei flourished in his 'second life'. Virtually all of his old books were republished during these years, and he turned out new books and articles in even greater quantity. Of the fifteen volumes of his “Works” (1999–2001), new writings from the 1980s and 1990s fill over half. Many of the themes were familiar. He repeatedly and forcefully set forth the case for sociology and anthropology in China if modernization were to succeed. He reminisced about his village fieldwork, his studies, and his teachers. There were articles and books on rural industrialization, small towns, national minorities, and developing frontier areas. He championed the cause of intellectuals. He recounted what he had learned from his trips abroad and made some new translations from English. There was even a little book of his poetry. What is different in all this new writing is political caution; Fei had too much to do and too little time in the last decades to risk playing with fire again.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
Above all, it was as a writer that Fei flourished in his 'second life'. Virtually all of his old books were republished during these years, and he turned out new books and articles in even greater quantity. Of the fifteen volumes of his “Works” (1999–2001), new writings from the 1980s and 1990s fill over half. Many of the themes were familiar. He repeatedly and forcefully set forth the case for sociology and anthropology in China if modernization were to succeed. He reminisced about his village fieldwork, his studies, and his teachers. There were articles and books on rural industrialization, small towns, national minorities, and developing frontier areas. He championed the cause of intellectuals. He recounted what he had learned from his trips abroad and made some new translations from English. There was even a little book of his poetry. What is different in all this new writing is political caution; Fei had too much to do and too little time in the last decades to risk playing with fire again.{{cn|date=May 2024}}


He was Professor of Sociology at [[Peking University]] at the time of his death on April 24, 2005, in Beijing at the age of 94. A memorial has been set up in the Department of [[Sociology]] at the university, where he has taught and directed since the 1980s.
He was Professor of Sociology at [[Peking University]] at the time of his death on April 24, 2005, in Beijing at the age of 94. A memorial has been set up in the Department of [[Sociology]] at the university, where he has taught and directed since the 1980s.
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===Major works===
===Major works===
* ''Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley''. Preface by Bronislaw Malinowski. London: G. Routledge and New York: Dutton, 1939, and various reprints and a Japanese translation.
* ''Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley''. Preface by Bronislaw Malinowski. London: G. Routledge and New York: Dutton, 1939, and various reprints and a Japanese translation.
* Fei and Chang Chih-I [Zhang Zhiyi 张之毅], ''Earthbound China: A Study of Rural Economy in Yunnan.'' University of Chicago Press, 1945.
* Fei and Chang Chih-I [Zhang Zhiyi 张之毅], ''Earthbound China: A Study of Rural Economy in Yunnan.'' University of Chicago Press, 1945.
* ''China's Gentry: Essays in Rural-Urban Relations.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.
* ''China's Gentry: Essays in Rural-Urban Relations.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.
* ''Neidi de nongcun'' 《內地的農村》(Villages of the interior). Shanghai: Shenghuo, 1946.
* ''Neidi de nongcun'' 《內地的農村》(Villages of the interior). Shanghai: Shenghuo, 1946.
* ''Shengyu zhidu'' 《生育制度》 (The institutions for reproduction). Shanghai: Shangwu, 1947.
* ''Shengyu zhidu'' 《生育制度》 (The institutions for reproduction). Shanghai: Shangwu, 1947.
* ''[[From the Soil]]'' (Xiangtu Zhongguo, 《鄉土中國》). Shanghai: Guancha, 1948. (Translated as ''From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society'', U. of California Press, 1992)
* ''[[From the Soil]]'' (Xiangtu Zhongguo, 《鄉土中國》). Shanghai: Guancha, 1948. (Translated as ''From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society'', U. of California Press, 1992)
* ''Xiangtu chongjian'' 《鄉土重建》 (Rural recovery). Shanghai: Guancha, 1948.
* ''Xiangtu chongjian'' 《鄉土重建》 (Rural recovery). Shanghai: Guancha, 1948.
* Fei Xiaotong et al. ''Small Towns in China: Functions, Problems & Prospects.'' Beijing: New World Press, 1986.
* Fei Xiaotong et al. ''Small Towns in China: Functions, Problems & Prospects.'' Beijing: New World Press, 1986.
* ''Xingxing chong xingxing'' 《行行重行行》 (Travel, travel, and more travel). Ningxia Renmin Chubanshe, 1992.
* ''Xingxing chong xingxing'' 《行行重行行》 (Travel, travel, and more travel). Ningxia Renmin Chubanshe, 1992.
* ''Fei Xiaotong wenji'' 《费孝通文集》 (Collected works of Fei Xiaotong), 15 vols. Beijing: Qunyan chubanshe, 1999.
* ''Fei Xiaotong wenji'' 《费孝通文集》 (Collected works of Fei Xiaotong), 15 vols. Beijing: Qunyan chubanshe, 1999.


===Awards===
===Awards===
* 1980: [[Bronislaw Malinowski Award]] of the [[International Applied Anthropology Association]]
* 1980: [[Bronislaw Malinowski Award]] of the [[International Applied Anthropology Association]]
* 1981: ''[[Thomas Henry Huxley|Huxley]] Memorial Medal'' of the [[Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland]]
* 1981: ''[[Thomas Henry Huxley|Huxley]] Memorial Medal'' of the [[Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland]]
* 1988: ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] Prize'' in New York
* 1988: ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] Prize'' in New York
* 1993: ''USA and Asian Cultural Prize'' in [[Fukuoka, Fukuoka|Fukuoka]], Japan
* 1993: ''USA and Asian Cultural Prize'' in [[Fukuoka, Fukuoka|Fukuoka]], Japan
* Doctor of Letters degree, ''[[honoris causa]]'' by the [[University of Hong Kong]]
* Doctor of Letters degree, ''[[honoris causa]]'' by the [[University of Hong Kong]]
* Doctor of Social Science degree, ''[[honoris causa]]'', [[University of Macau]]
* Doctor of Social Science degree, ''[[honoris causa]]'', [[University of Macau]]
* 1994: ''[[Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership]] in the [[Philippines]].''
* 1994: ''[[Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership]] in the [[Philippines]].''


===Political positions===
===Political positions===
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[[Category:Chinese non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Chinese non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Chinese sociologists]]
[[Category:Chinese sociologists]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of London]]
[[Category:Educators from Suzhou]]
[[Category:Educators from Suzhou]]
[[Category:Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee members]]
[[Category:Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee members]]

Latest revision as of 13:27, 16 December 2024

In this Chinese name, the family name is Fei.

Fei Xiaotong
费孝通
Fei at the LSE in 1986.
Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
In office
April 8, 1988 – March 16, 1998
ChairmanWan Li
Qiao Shi
Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
In office
June 17, 1983 – April 10, 1988
ChairwomanDeng Yingchao
Chairman of the China Democratic League
In office
January 1987 – November 1996
Preceded byChu Tunan
Succeeded byDing Shisun
Personal details
Born(1910-11-02)November 2, 1910
Wujiang, Jiangsu, Qing China
DiedApril 24, 2005(2005-04-24) (aged 94)
Beijing, China
Political partyChina Democratic League
OccupationAnthropologist, sociologist
Known forThe development of sociological and anthropological studies in China
Fei Xiaotong
Traditional Chinese費孝通
Simplified Chinese费孝通
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinFèi Xiàotōng
Wade–GilesFei Hsiao-t'ung
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Fei Xiaotong or Fei Hsiao-tung (November 2, 1910 – April 24, 2005) was a Chinese anthropologist and sociologist. He was a pioneering researcher and professor of sociology and anthropology; he was also noted for his studies in the study of China's ethnic groups as well as a social activist. Starting in the late 1930s, he and his colleagues established Chinese sociology and his works were instrumental in laying a foundation for the development of sociological and anthropological studies in China, as well as in introducing social and cultural phenomena of China to the international community. His last post before his death in 2005 was as Professor of Sociology at Peking University.[1]

Early years

[edit]

Fei Xiaotong was born in Wujiang County of Jiangsu province in China on November 2, 1910. His world was one plagued with political corruption and abject poverty. He grew up in a gentry but yet not wealthy family. His father, Fei Pu'an (费朴安) was educated in the Chinese classics, earned a shengyuan civil service degree, studied in Japan, and founded a middle school. Fei's mother, Yang Renlan (杨纫兰), the Christian daughter of a government official and also highly educated for her time, established a nursery school in Wujiang which Fei attended. Her brothers include Chinese politician Yang Qianli (father of Hong Kong director and lyricwriter Evan Yang), Architect Yang Xiliu (S. J. Young), Chinese-American animator Cy Young, and entrepreneur Yang Xiren.[2]

Career in academic sociology

[edit]
Fei Xiaotong in Yenching University

At missionary-founded Yenching University in Beiping, which had China's best sociology program, he was stimulated by the semester visit of Robert E. Park, the University of Chicago sociologist. For an M.A. in anthropology, Fei went to nearby Tsinghua University where he studied with Pan Guangdan and learned fieldwork methods from a White Russian, S. M. Shirokogoroff. Fei's first fieldwork experience, in the rugged mountains of Guangxi province in the far south, ended tragically after Fei's leg was crushed by a tiger trap, and his young bride Wang Tonghui (王同惠) died seeking help.[3]

"Functional" anthropology

[edit]

From 1936 to 1938 Fei studied at the London School of Economics under the pioneer anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski. "From Malinowski and A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, Fei learned to focus on the functional interrelationships of various "parts" of a community and on the meaning of a culture as seen by its members. He devised survey methods which incorporated the functional approach ... "[1]: 17  Fei wrote his 1938 PhD thesis, based on earlier fieldwork in Kaixiangong (Chinese:開弦弓) village, China and published it as Peasant Life in China (1939).[citation needed]

Among Fei Xiaotong's contributions to anthropology is the concept that Chinese social relations work through social networks of personal relations with the self at the center and decreasing closeness as one moves out. Among the criticisms of Fei Xiaotong's work is that his work tended to ignore regional and historical variations in Chinese behavior. Nonetheless, as a pioneer and educator, his intent was to highlight general trends, thus this simplification may have had significant justification for Fei's intent, even if they contributed to a bias in studies of Chinese society and culture.[citation needed]

An important work of the period, China's Gentry, was compiled from Fei's field interviews, and was published in the United States in 1953. It went on to become a staple of American university courses on China. The compilation and U.S. publication of China's Gentry grew out of a relationship Fei developed at Tsinghua University with the University of Chicago anthropologist Robert Redfield and his wife, Margaret Park Redfield.[1]: 18 

Leading intellectual in People's Republic of China

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1950s and 1960s: Politics in command

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After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Fei played an important role in national intellectual and ideological life, and before long he began to hold a growing number of political positions. He was made vice president in 1951 of the Central Institute for Nationalities in Beijing (today, Minzu University of China), and in 1954 attended the First National People's Congress as a member of the Nationalities Affairs Commission.[1]: 18 

Soon thereafter, however, departments of sociology were eliminated (as a "bourgeois pseudo-science"). Fei no longer taught, and published less and less. During the “Hundred Flowers” thaw of 1956–57, he began to speak out again, cautiously suggesting the restoration of sociology. But then the climate suddenly changed with the “Anti-Rightist Movement.” In 1957, Fei stood with head bowed before countless assemblies to confess his “crimes toward the people.” [4] Hundreds of articles attacked him, not a few by colleagues, some viciously dishonest.[5] Fei became an outcast, humiliated, isolated, unable to teach, do research, or publish. Twenty-three years of his life, he would later write, years that should have been his most productive period, were simply lost, wasted. At the height of the Cultural Revolution, physically attacked by Red Guards, forced to clean toilets, he contemplated suicide.[4]

1970s and 1980s: A 'second life'

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In the 1970s, Fei, internationally known, began to receive foreign visitors, and after Mao's death he was asked to direct the restoration of Chinese sociology. He visited the United States again and was subsequently able to arrange the visits to China of American social scientists to help with the gigantic task of training a whole new cadre of Chinese sociologists. In 1980 he was formally rehabilitated, and was one of the judges in the long, televised trial of the Gang of Four and others held responsible for the crimes of the Cultural Revolution.[citation needed]

Fei Xiaotong and Professor Maurice Bloch, 1986

His 'second life' was more than ever that of the public intellectual, with important political posts and contact with policy makers. His influence is thought to have been important in convincing the government to promote rural industry, whose rapid growth in the 1980s raised the income of hundreds of millions of villagers all over China. Virtually every week in the 1990s his name was in the newspapers and his face on television. He traveled all over China, went abroad, to the US, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and elsewhere, and was showered with international honors: the Malinowski Award of the Society for Applied Anthropology, the Huxley Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, an honorary doctorate from the University of Hong Kong, and other honors in Japan, the Philippines, Canada. He played a role in promoting and directing the reestablishment of sociology and anthropology in China, training scholars and developing teaching materials after thirty years of prohibition.[citation needed]

Fei is also known for his influential theory on ethnic groups in Chinese history, which follows the tradition of Lewis H. Morgan's stage-developmental evolutionism. A representative example of his work is Fei's 1988 Tanner lecture in Hong Kong, "Plurality and Unity in the Configuration of the Chinese Nationality." According to Fei, the Huaxia became a true ethnic group, the Han, during the Qin dynasty. Afterwards, the Han became "a nucleus with centripetal force" with their stable agricultural society attracting and assimilating ethnic nomads from China's northern frontier such as the Qiang.[6]

The 1990s and 2000s: reminiscence and caution

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Above all, it was as a writer that Fei flourished in his 'second life'. Virtually all of his old books were republished during these years, and he turned out new books and articles in even greater quantity. Of the fifteen volumes of his “Works” (1999–2001), new writings from the 1980s and 1990s fill over half. Many of the themes were familiar. He repeatedly and forcefully set forth the case for sociology and anthropology in China if modernization were to succeed. He reminisced about his village fieldwork, his studies, and his teachers. There were articles and books on rural industrialization, small towns, national minorities, and developing frontier areas. He championed the cause of intellectuals. He recounted what he had learned from his trips abroad and made some new translations from English. There was even a little book of his poetry. What is different in all this new writing is political caution; Fei had too much to do and too little time in the last decades to risk playing with fire again.[citation needed]

He was Professor of Sociology at Peking University at the time of his death on April 24, 2005, in Beijing at the age of 94. A memorial has been set up in the Department of Sociology at the university, where he has taught and directed since the 1980s.

Career landmarks

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Major works

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  • Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley. Preface by Bronislaw Malinowski. London: G. Routledge and New York: Dutton, 1939, and various reprints and a Japanese translation.
  • Fei and Chang Chih-I [Zhang Zhiyi 张之毅], Earthbound China: A Study of Rural Economy in Yunnan. University of Chicago Press, 1945.
  • China's Gentry: Essays in Rural-Urban Relations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.
  • Neidi de nongcun 《內地的農村》(Villages of the interior). Shanghai: Shenghuo, 1946.
  • Shengyu zhidu 《生育制度》 (The institutions for reproduction). Shanghai: Shangwu, 1947.
  • From the Soil (Xiangtu Zhongguo, 《鄉土中國》). Shanghai: Guancha, 1948. (Translated as From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society, U. of California Press, 1992)
  • Xiangtu chongjian 《鄉土重建》 (Rural recovery). Shanghai: Guancha, 1948.
  • Fei Xiaotong et al. Small Towns in China: Functions, Problems & Prospects. Beijing: New World Press, 1986.
  • Xingxing chong xingxing 《行行重行行》 (Travel, travel, and more travel). Ningxia Renmin Chubanshe, 1992.
  • Fei Xiaotong wenji 《费孝通文集》 (Collected works of Fei Xiaotong), 15 vols. Beijing: Qunyan chubanshe, 1999.

Awards

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Political positions

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Fei also made significant contributions to the study and management of the development of China's rural economy.

Before his death, Fei held a number of political positions, although these are mostly honorary; he was considered by many to be "active politically".

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d Boorman, Howard L. (1968). ""Fei Hsiao=t'ung". Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. Vol. II. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 17–19.
  2. ^ 同里骄杨 (in Chinese)
  3. ^ “人天无据，灵会难期”：费孝通与王同惠 (in Chinese). Sina. March 31, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
  4. ^ a b citation?
  5. ^ by whom?
  6. ^ Gladney, Dru C. Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the people's Republic (2 ed.). Harvard University Asia Center. pp. 72–73.

Further reading

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Party political offices
Preceded by Chairman of China Democratic League
1987–1996 		Succeeded by
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