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Appendix: The Re-establishment of Sociology Discipline in China He Zhaofa As is well known, radical changes are taking place in academic acti­ vities in China. Our government pays a great deal of attention not only to the development of studies of technology and the natural sciences, but it also puts much stress on the social sciences. In the past five years many departments of the social sciences have been rebuilt. To take my university of Zhongshan as an example, we have re-established the following departments: law; anthropology; sociology; administration and management; and library sciences. We are also preparing to establish a department of political science in 1985. Sociology as an independent academic discipline had been sus­ pended for about thirty years before it was re-habilitated in 1979. Since then we have reconstructed the discipline through two channels. (1) THE CHINESE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Under these auspices were founded the National Association of Socio­ logy in China and the Institute of Sociology (in Beijing). Both are led by Dr Fei Xiaotong, the well-known scholar in the fields of sociology and anthropology. The Association and the Institute conducted two short-term summer classes for researchers and teachers of sociology in 1980 and 1981. These courses which were in the nature of short-term training classes covered basic concepts, basic methods of social research, technological development and social change, community analysis, applied sociology and so on. Courses of this kind are not intended for university students, rather they are directed towards cadres and staff in order to help train them to apply sociology for the promotion of China's four modernisations. Most of the teachers of 154 HeZhaoJa 155 these classes came from the United States and Hong Kong. There are now many associations and institutes of sociology newly founded in various provinces in China. (2) THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION Some of the key comprehensive universities in the charge of the Ministry including Beijing, Fudan (in Shanghai), Nankai (in Tianjin) and Zhongshan (in Guangzhao) are establishing sociology depart­ ments. But they follow different approaches. The universities of Fudan and Nankai train undergraduate students in the first instance. They can offer only low level courses because of the shortage of suitably qualified teachers. However, at Beijing and Zhongshan the initial focus is on postgraduate students so that they can train a larger number of teachers. This is possible at Zhongshan because we are fortunately placed to obtain help from abroad. Owing to our proximity to Hong Kong we have had no difficulty in soliciting the assistance of sociology professors from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University to teach some advanced courses. Furthermore our department has benefited from the presence of Professor C. K. Yang, the distinguished sociologist from Pittsburgh University in America. He came to our department at the invitation of Zhongshan University as a visiting honoured professor. Professor Yang has helped us to raise financial grants from abroad to invite some American professors to teach in our department. That is why we have been able to recruit postgradute students in the first instance. The rebuilding of the sociology department in our university is follow­ ing a schedule of three phrases. During the first phase, postgraduate students were recruited in the summer of 1981 and they studied a foreign language and the basic sociology courses. In the following summer of 1982 they were offered the higher level courses by the foreign professors from the United States and Hong Kong. These courses were methodology, contem­ porary theories, social psychology, social ecology and the sociology of organisation. In the summer of 1983 three American and four Hong Kong professors were invited to teach the following courses: social statistics, methods of social research, community analysis, demo- 156 Re-establishment of Sociology Discipline graphic sociology and social processes. These courses were offered in the summer as the foreign professors were available only at that time. For their semester work students will be assigned to carry out two separate research projects as practice in field work. One will be in rural community studies and the other in urban community studies. Both projects will be supervised by the staff of our department. As part of the first phase we have also sent some young teachers to undertake advanced studies abroad. They will be considered as the backbone of the faculty in both teaching and research. Work on the second phase began in the summer of 1983 and it overlapped with the first phase. Postgraduate students were offered advanced courses on modernisation and social development, quanti­ tative sociology and the sociology of knowledge. Following these courses the students go on to write theses for the MA degree. They are writing the following thesis topics with an emphasis on community studies: (1) The consumption activities of Lo-Chiang village; (2) The establishment of In-Zhun (Ning Xia Province) industrial community and its development; (3) Social mobility and social integration in the Zekow Industrial area of the Shenzhen special economic zone; (4) A comparative study of small towns in northern Fujian Province; (5) The change of social structure in Kun Village after the adoption of the production responsibility system; and (6) An investigation of rich peasants in the Kemdan rural area. The postgraduate students are busily engaged on their theses and they will be awarded the Master degree in sociology after an oral examination and the satisfactory defence of their theses. The third phase is due to begin this summer of 1984. We plan to recruit 30 students at the undergraduate and 27 at the postgraduate levels. Seven of the latter will follow the degree programme. Mean­ while we shall establish two separate field work bases in rural and urban community studies. By this summer our department will have 20 members on the teaching staff (including seven postgraduate students who have completed their MAs). Half of the members of staff will be senior and the other half junior. We shall then have formally estab­ lished the department of sociology. By the end of this third phase we shall no longer need to invite so many professors from abroad. Of course, some experts and scholars of sociology will always be welcome to come to China to help us to promote our teaching and research in order to raise our academic levels. We shall also continue to send abroad our good grade students and young teachers for advanced study. In fact at present we have sent one person to the USA and HeZhaoJa 157 another to France, and it is planned to send two more to France. As will be seen from the above, the greatest difficulty in rebuilding sociology in China is the shortage of suitably trained personnel. Three ways have been adopted to solve this problem. One is to let the handful of old Chinese sociologists train students at the lower level courses; another is to invite foreign professors from abroad or Hong Kong to teach higher level courses for postgraduate students. The third is to send some students and teachers abroad for advanced study. A further major problem is the shortage of sociological materials owing to the closure of sociology departments more than thirty years ago. This does not mean, however, that we have not studied the Chinese society at all. On the contrary, we did a lot of social survey work on youth, ageing people, family structure, rural community, population, and so on. But most of the investigations were only in order to provide current information for the use of the government. We have not used sociological methods of analysis to examine the materials or the data that was generated. For example the large amount of material collected on ageing people: there have been no sociological studies that have tried to collate or summarise this within the field of gerontology; nor has this data been used to support or refute a mode of sociological approach, still less has it been used to generate and test sociological hypotheses. In addition to these shortcomings we also have many other problems in reconstructing sociology in China. These are being debated in China and abroad. How, for example, should the knowledge of sociology be applied to promote what we call 'the Four Modernisations'? Will the theories of Western sociology be suitable in China? What kind of curriculum of sociology would be best suited for Chinese students? Some advanced societies in the world at present have gone beyond the industrial period and have begun to enter what Toffler has called the 'Third Wave', or the post-industrial society. In China, however, we are talking about how to make our country enter the industrial stage! There exists a big gap. Although we face many difficulties along the road of rebuilding sociology in China, we have made progress. We have begun publishing the following sociological journals and magazines: Sociology Teaching Newsletter, by Zhongshan University; Sociology, by Shanghai Univer­ sity (A local university); Sociology Research, by the National Associa­ tion of Sociology in Beijing; The Society, by the Provincial Sociology in Chungking; and Social Research in Guangzhou City, by the Sociology Association of Guangzhou City. 158 Re-establishment of Sociology Discipline There is still a long way to go in the rebuilding of sociology with Chinese characteristics and we sincerely hope that our good friends will give us their good advice without hesitation. ADDITIONAL POINTS MADE BY PROFESSOR HE IN THE DISCUSSION OF HIS PAPER (1) Q. How much attention is paid in China to sociology as it has developed in the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe? A.

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