page_title: History of anthropology by country
section_title: China
hierarchical_section_title: History of anthropology by country / Asia / China
context_page_description: Anthropology is the study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies. This study is practiced in multiple countries, each of whom has their own history of how anthropology has developed in their respective countries.
context_section_description: Chinese anthropology was founded by scholar Cai Yuanpei. Cai Yuanpei was a scholar educated at the University of Leipzig, and he brought both Western influence and standardization into the discipline of anthropology in China. The first department of anthropology was founded in 1928 with Cai Yuanpei's creation of Academia Sinica in Beijing. At Academia Sinica, physical anthropology and archaeology held focus.
  Franz Boas also brought Western influence to China, and British functionalism would make a lasting impact on Chinese anthropology. In addition to Cai Yuanpei, Wu Wenzao was one of the most influential proponents of Western-influenced anthropology, and he took classes under Ruth Benedict (one of Boas’ students that would be influential in the field of anthropology on her own overall). Wu began teaching at Yenjing University in 1929, where he would influence students such as Fei Xiaotong and Lin Yaohua, who would go on to be important in the scene of Chinese anthropology. Chinese Ethnological Association created in 1934, but its progress was halted by China's involvement in World War II in 1937.
  World War II pushed back the institutional development of anthropology in China until the late 1940s. With this revitalization, Chinese anthropologists began to look inwards at themselves for subjects of study. This inward focus led anthropologists of the time to attempt to use anthropology to better Chinese society. 1940-late 1950s was a time of Soviet influence in China, followed by 1957-1977 and Mao Zedong’s era of the People's Republic of China. During this time, Maoist aims supplemented ethnology and Chinese national identity creation.
  Post-1978 was a time of reform in China following the end of Mao Zedong's leadership. Academia was reconstructed, and anthropology subsequently saw a revival during this time. Exchanges between foreign faculty and students helped to globalize Chinese anthropology and bring in other perspectives. Liang Zhaotong was an advocate for the revival of social and cultural anthropology, but for this to happen, anthropology had to be seen as a useful tool for improvements in the field of the social sciences and society. Anthropology was held in lower regard than ethnology in China due to the ideology of Mao Zedong, and anthropologists left anthropology for other disciplines in social science, such as sociology, which subsequently saw a large period of development in the 1980s. This lower regard for anthropology also caused the field to receive less attention and less funding from the public and Chinese institutions.
  The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and the State Education Committee founded the Chinese Anthropological Association in 1981 (now part of the East Asian Anthropological Association). Today, anthropology in China is still influenced by its history of being less practical and less important in the field of social sciences. This causes a lack of public interest and awareness in Chinese anthropology in favor of more “professional” disciplines, such as medicine, business, law, etc.
caption: Cai Yuanpei, the father of anthropology in China
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