From 1949 to 1964, Chinese ethnologists experienced two severe large-scale tests: extensive self-transformation and full participation in the national ethnic survey which resulted in outstanding achievements. The self-transformation consisted in the comprehensive critique of “Western bourgeois ethnology” and the full acceptance of the Soviet model and ideology. This is also known as the “renewal” of Chinese ethnology through socialist transformation. During this period, Chinese ethnology entered its golden age, with the accumulation of massive ethnographic data while serving as the backbone in an unprecedented government-sponsored ethnic identification and social and historical investigation of ethnic minorities.
Renewal: acceptance of the soviet model
Adjustment of faculties and the research department
After the liberation of the country, China fully fell into the Soviet-led socialist camp in political, military, economic and cultural dimensions, and higher education was no exception. In the Soviet Union, sociology was revoked in the 1930s because of its bourgeois characteristic; with regard to anthropology, the cultural branch was also revoked and the physical branch left in the field of human evolution research as part of biology. As one of the inevitable results of comprehensively learning from the Soviet Union, New China also revoked sociology and anthropology on the grounds of that they were Western “bourgeois disciplines”. Physical anthropology was integrated into the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), completely detaching from social sciences. Ethnology was luckily preserved as a part of historical studies according to the Soviet classification of disciplines, but with the 1952 National Adjustment of Departments, all the departments of ethnology were removed from universities, the teaching staff reduced, and undergraduate enrollment canceled.
Before the liberation, the specialty of ethnology existed in the departments of sociology or anthropology. As there were no clear boundaries among these similar disciplines in China, Chinese anthropologists and sociologists were mostly deemed as ethnologists. For example, Fei Xiaotong’s Peasant Life in China and Lin Yaohua’s Golden Wings are recognized as works in sociology, ethnology and anthropology. Because of fuzzy disciplinary boundaries, some sociologists were sent into other fields after the adjustment of faculties. For example, with the removal of their departments, Pan Guangdan and Wu Wenzao, who were originally Deans of the Department of Sociology in Tsinghua University and Yenching University respectively, and Wu Zelin and Yang Chengzhi, originally Deans of the Department of Anthropology in Tsinghua University and Sun Yat-Sen University respectively, were transferred to the Minzu University of China Minzu University of China.
In 1952, the departments of sociology, anthropology and ethnology were withdrawn in a large-scale adjustment of national colleges and universities. Leading scholars in Yenching University, Tsinghua University, Sun Yat-Sen University, Fu Jen Catholic University and Peking Institute were mostly transferred to the Research Department of MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA. As a result, this department became the last stronghold of ethnology and sociology and the earliest ethnological teaching and research center of New China. It encompassed a group of famous scholars, including Weng Dujian, Pan Guangdan, Wu Wenzao, Wen You, Yang Chengzhi, Fei Xiaotong, Lin Yaohua, Jian Bozan, Wu Zelin, Feng Jiasheng, Wang Zhonghan, Cheng Suluo, Shi Lianzhu, Chen Yongling, Wu Heng, Wang Furen, and Song Shuhua.
This rising group of top-class ethnologists, sociologists, anthropologists and historians, originally headed by Professor Weng Dujian, absorbed the faculty and students of the Department of Ethnology of Yenching University. Under this umbrella, there were research offices in the Northwest (led by Feng Jiasheng), Northeast Inner Mongolia (led by Wengdu Jian), Southwest (led by Jian Bozan), Tibet (led by Lin Yaohua), Southeast (led by Pan Guangdan) as well as a book archive (directed by Wang Ming Yu), and later, an office of ethnic minority research (led by Wu Wenzao) and the former office on national heritage research (led by Yang Chengzhi). Fei Xiaotong served concurrently as Vice President of Minzu University of China Minzu University of China.
The specialty of ethnology was kept only in Minzu University of China Minzu University of China as the case of Soviet colleges and universities (in the Department of History). A small number of graduate students were recruited for conducting research on ethnic minorities when courses were available for the cultivation of associate doctors in ethnology. Founded in 1956, the Department of History did not recruit undergraduate students in ethnology though offering courses of ethnography by its Ethnological teaching and research section.
Critique of “bourgeois ethnology”
The founding of New China represented more than a simple regime change, also symbolizing a complete break with Old China. It required the construction of new social systems, ideas and concepts. Higher education was also bound to renew itself. New systems and ideas could be drawn from the Soviet Union, but before that, old concepts and ideas had to be abandoned. With respect to ethnology, the thorough critique of Western ethnology covered not only the entire theoretical framework, which was imported from the West, but also the ideas and concepts of old-style Western-educated teachers.
Starting in September 1951, a nationwide ideological reform of teachers was carried out for four to six consecutive months. The movement was centered on ideological education through the study of the basic theories of Marxism-Leninism, and encompassed learning the CPC’s guiding principles for a new democratic revolution, as well as Marxist philosophy, political economics and social development history, and understanding and discussing domestic and international events. The textbooks consisted of selected readings from the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Mao Zedong. Ethnological instructors were also required to study Engels’ Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State and The Role of Labor in the Transformation from Ape to Man, Morgan’s Ancient Society, and Stalin’s Marxism and the National Question and Marxism and Problems of Linguistics. The movement was a process of listening to reports, learning documents and materials, conducting criticism and self-criticism, and writing personal summaries of thoughts.
In the process of criticism and self-criticism, most scholars carried out a profound personal introspection of their ethnological teaching and research. First, the Western ethnological theories and methodologies accepted in the past were now considered an enslaving form of education, and the research conducted on this basis was considered to be unconvincing or even wrong. More specifically, it was believed that the major works failed to reflect proletarian views and positions or to integrate class analysis, and relied on empiricism. Representative Western works and basic theories of ethnology and anthropology were negated for being characterized by bourgeois values, colonialism, idealism and racism. Moreover, there was a complete negation of personal research and a thorough critique of teaching activities, which were considered to serve as Western bourgeois propaganda.
After witnessing of the corruption of the old regime, Western hegemony and the oppression of Old China, followed by the prosperity of New China, scholars supported the CPC and socialism, and mostly conducted sincere criticisms and examinations. However, the complete negation of established theories and methodologies and previous studies resulted in self-abasement, and sparked a fervent desire to learn from Soviet ethnology. These scholars expressed the determination to reinvent themselves as soon as possible as red specialists and intellectuals.
Learning from the soviet union
How could scholars behave as red intellectuals? In what way could “proletarian ethnology” be built to serve the nation after a thorough critique of the Old China “bourgeois ethnology”? The only way was to learn from the Soviet Union and substitute the Western model with the Soviet model. At that time, the Soviet school had risen as a unique school in international ethnology, which came into existence in the late 1920s and formed its own independent features in the late 1930s. The Soviet school advocated the combination of ethnology, anthropology (physical anthropology) and archeology. Its features can be summarized as follows: (1) close connection with the socialist construction of the country under the guidance of dialectical and historical materialism; (2) special attention to the origin of Soviet ethnic groups through a comprehensive study in ethnology, anthropology and archeology;(3) highlight on the study of primitive social history; (4) targeted systematic investigation of the material and spiritual cultures of ethnic groups; (5) emphasis on foreign nations (Yu. Bromley ed, 1974).
The first step in learning from the Soviet Union was to apply the Soviet model in the division of disciplines. The Anglo-American approach divided anthropology into four branches: ethnology (cultural anthropology), linguistics, archeology and physical anthropology. In the Soviet model, ethnology was withdrawn and the other three branches set up as independent disciplines, and the specialty of ethnology was generally integrated into the department of history. Hence, in China, ethnology was classified as a branch of history (this classification in undergraduate education is still recognized by the Ministry of Education, although graduate courses nowadays elevate ethnology as having an equal status to history). Specifically in higher education, it was necessary to translate Soviet materials and related works. In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union provided China with a huge number of teaching materials and professional books. According to statistics, there were 3000 books translated and published in Chinese and 20 million copies of these books were issued during 1949–1955. (Gu, 2000a, b)Thanks to this translation endeavor, carried out in a very short period of time, scholars quickly became familiar with Soviet ethnology, for which they expressed great admiration, with someone even publicly wrote that “both before or after the revolution, Russia has presented a theoretical level of this science (ethnology) unmatched by the rest of the world.” (Research Department of the Central University for Nationalities, 1955) During this period, as many as 11,000 Chinese students, including those majoring in ethnology, were sent to the Soviet Union. A great many Soviet experts, including ethnologists, offered lectures in China and conducted collaborative studies with Chinese scholars. The most famous of these experts was Professor Cheboksarove, Director of the Department of Ethnology of Moscow State University, who lectured on Soviet ethnology in the MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA Research Department. Graduate students that received the education mostly rose to fame in the Chinese ethnological academia. The viewpoints they held were considered by Western scholars as being part of the Soviet school.
The basic ethnology teaching materials in China were largely translated from Soviet textbooks, such as Introduction to General Ethnology, Development of Soviet Ethnology, Anglo-American Ethnography in the Service of Imperialism, Outline of Primitive Cultural History, Critique of Bourgeois Ethnology, and What is Ethnology. A large number of the writings of Soviet scholars about ethnic history and other nations were also published in Chinese, such as Collection of Ethnic History Translations, African Ethnography and American Ethnography, while recently-published papers and research findings were gathered into the Collection of Translations on Ethnic Issues. Soon the majority of the Chinese ethnological community mastered basic Marxist theories and began their research in accordance with the Soviet model.
Soviet ethnology stressed its will to serve the national construction of the country and the ethnic policies of the Soviet Communist Party, and took the position of safeguarding Marxism-Leninism from Western imperialism. Therefore, its focus was supposed to be political and practical. Affected by this, Chinese ethnology soon showed the same tendency, particularly in the fields of “primitive social history”, “economic and cultural types” and “ethnic definition and identification”.
Primitive social history was emphasized as "a basis to clarify the basic theory of historical materialism" (Lin, 1984). Lin Yaohua developed the syllabus for Primitive Social History commissioned by the Ministry of Education, and Yang Kun prepared the handouts for Primitive Social History and Ethnography. These syllabus and handouts were greatly affected by Outline of Primitive Cultural History, but mostly cited Chinese cases. The courses were offered in the departments of history, politics, or literature in several universities. The study of economic and cultural classification was based on the theory of Soviet scholars. China Economic and Cultural Types, co-authored by Lin Yaohua and Cheboksarove and published in 1961, integrated the theory put forward by Soviet lecturers with specific cases from China’s ethnic minorities. In fact, today this study is defined as ecological ethnology (or ecological anthropology). To our knowledge, this was published even a few years earlier than related studies in Western anthropology and ethnology. In this sense, Soviet ethnology was unique compared with its Western counterpart, in addition to adherence to the basic Marxist theory. Ethnic definition and identification was a research topic of common concern for Soviet and Chinese scholars. At that time, Chinese ethnologists had to come up with supportive standards and technical solutions in theory and methodology as the Chinese government had kicked off the work of ethnic recognition nationwide.
Through the socialist education and transformation achieved by studying Soviet ethnology and Marxist theory, Chinese scholars took on an entirely new look, particularly in research priorities, theories and methods. In 1956, two leading scholars, Fei Xiaotong and Lin Yaohua, pointed out four research priorities in Chinese ethnology in a co-authored dissertation: (1) identification of ethnic minorities; (2) social nature of ethnic minorities; (3) culture and life of ethnic minorities; and (4) religion of ethnic minorities (Fei and Lin, 1957). These four tasks were confirmed by the Science Planning Commission of the State Council in the Draft Plan for Philosophy and Social Sciences (1956–1967). Apparently, the voices of Fei and his colleagues were heard and obtained the central government’s recognition on major issues concerning discipline development.
In a review of Soviet influence on Chinese ethnology, American scholar Gu Dingguo said that Soviet scholars taught their Chinese counterparts to combine ethnology, ethnic history and archeology with socialist construction (Gu, 2000a, b). The example of the Soviet Union was important due to the fact that Chinese ethnological academia was able to quickly start playing an important role in and make outstanding contributions to the government’s ethnic work in the 1950s.
While being completely incorporated into the Soviet school, Chinese ethnology showed repulsion or even hostility towards various Western schools. It became a one-sided discipline with diplomatic inclination to the Soviet bloc, and completely cut contacts and exchanges with its Western counterparts, establishing on the other hand connections with the countries of the socialist bloc, such as East Germany, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, North Korea, Romania, Mongolia and Vietnam, which was embodied in the introduction to its research findings in the Collection of Translations on Ethnic Issues.
Winning Glory: Ethnic identification and social and historical surveys
In the early 1950s, the involvement of ethnologists was necessary to the ethnic work of the new government of this multi-ethnic country, covering ethnic policy development, theory establishment, basic situation survey, and information collection and accumulation. Chinese ethnologists who had initially mastered Marxist and Soviet school theories turned to border and ethnic minority research. Despite the constraints to discipline construction, the scholars involved in national ethnic surveys and research were highly valued by the government and society, and even received the government’s support. They provided assistance in the 14-year ethnic identification work and 8-year ethnic minority social and historical survey launched nationwide in 1950, which came to some preliminary conclusions on the social nature of ethnic minorities based on a comprehensive study. Totally over 400 series books on the history and languages of ethnic groups, totaling over 60 million words, were published by provincial and regional investigation teams. The unpublished survey materials were far more, mainly carried out by research institutions and scholars. Ethnic identification and social and historical surveys contributed significantly by paving a solid foundation for ethnic policy development and subsequent ethnic research in the New China.
Participation in ethnic identification and large-scale surveys
The work of ethnic identification was kicked off in 1950, and a large-scale survey started in 1953, extended to 1964 and completely finished in 1979. More than 400 ethnic groups reported in the country were classified into 56 identified main ethnic groups after dozens of years of large-scale surveys and research. This was the first time that China scientifically discerned its ethnic composition. This social and historical nationwide survey began in 1950 and lasted until 1958, after which investigation teams prepared reports and conducted case investigations. The entire work basically came to an end in the 1970s.
The whole ethnological community was involved in these two campaigns. Among them, the MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA Research Department and the Institute of Ethnic Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) played the most important role. Before the start of social and historical surveys on ethnic minorities, experts from the MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA Research Department drafted the Reference Outline of Social Nature Investigation and presided over the training of investigators that introduced basic knowledge and methodology. Since 1953, ethnologists became fully engaged in the survey, and many of them led local investigation teams. Among them, Lin Yaohua, Fu Lehuan, Wang Furen and Chen Xuebai went to Inner Mongolia; Pan Guandan, Wang Mingyu, Hu Kejin and Yang Ziqiao engaged in ethnic identification of the Tuin western Hunan; Lin Yaohua, Shi Lianzhu, Wang Furen, Huang Shupin, Chen Fengxian and Wang Xiaoyi conducted ethnic surveys in Yunnan; and Fei Xiaotong and Song Shuhua investigated the Chuanqing and Chuanlan people in Guizhou.
The guiding and exemplary efforts of ethnologists in ethnic identification were also seen in post-fieldwork comments and influential publications, such as Fei Xiaotong’s Issues on Identification of Ethnic minorities, Fu Lehuan’s Issues on Identification of Dahuer Ethnic Group, Wang Mingyu’s Overview of Tujia Ethnic Group in Xiangxi, Pan Guangdan’s Tujia People in Northwestern Hunan and Ancient Ba People, and Historical Source of Salar Ethnic Group and Economic Life of the Tu People in Qinghai by Song Shuhua et al.
Edition and publication of the Collection of Translations on Ethnic Issues and Collected Papers on China Ethnic Studies
In 1954, the Counselors’ Office of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) started compiling the Collection of Translations on Ethnic Issues, as internal information material. In 1955, the MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA Research Department took over the work and published it. In 1958, the publication was renamed Ethnic Studies, and was edited and published by the CASS Institute of Ethnic Studies. In September 1955, the MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA Research Department began to irregularly publish the Collected Papers on China Ethnic Studies, which contained influential papers and survey reports on ethnic research and work in the New China. It was these two publications on ethnology and ethnic theory that spread the preliminary influence of ethnology in the country.
Other research and social work
Since its inception, MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA Research Department emerged as one of the most important research and consulting agencies for developing ethnic policies and handling ethnic affairs. It often received letters from agencies, groups and individuals across the country to inquire about ethnic issues and obtain access to ethnic policies and knowledge, and replied to letters transferred from the SEAC. In addition to social surveys, the department also compiled and published a series of important works, such as the data-rich Compilation of Biographical Records of Ethnic Groups, co-authored by Jian Bozan and Wu Heng and published by Zhonghua Book Company, Index to Monographs and Papers on Ethnic Groups on the China-Burma Border, co-authored by Shi Zhongjian, Sun Cheng, Liu Yaohan, Zhou Rucheng, Yang Jiarong and published by the Research Department, Overview of Tibetan Society, co-authored by Lin Yaohua, Li Youyi, Song Shuhua, Wang Furen, and Historical Compendium of the Uyghur Ethnic Group, co-authored by Feng Jiasheng, Cheng Suluo and Mu Guangwen.
In 1956, the Department of History was set up in MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA. It established New China’s first specialty of ethnology and recruited graduate students as associate doctoral candidates. The MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA Research Department continued its research work in ethnology. On June 23, 1958, the Institute of Ethnic Studies (predecessor of the current Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology) was officially established under the Department of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, based on the preparation work started in 1957. The main members of the Institute came from the Research Department.
A brief comment
The Soviet-style transformation in the 1950s made Chinese ethnology community fully accept Marxist theory in social study and interpretation, a methodology that still exerts an important impact today. However, gains were accompanied by losses. Ethnologists completely lost contact with the outside world, with the exception of the foreign socialist camp, as a result of one-sided foreign policies. They became “deaf and blind”, listening to no one other than the Soviet school, and wore colored glasses when commenting on their own history and other schools reviewed by foreign scholars (Maurice Freedman, 1962). This comment no doubt makes sense because Western ethnology was not useless at all as Soviet scholars said and undoubtedly played an inseparably important part. History proved that it is a simplistic approach to consider all Western scholars and works as “bourgeois” without academic evidence, and this is harmful to the development of the discipline.
Ethnic studies in substitution of ethnology
In 1957, the nationwide “anti-rightist” campaign began. Most of the leading ethnologists were stricken. For example, Pan Guangdan, Wu Wenzao, Chen Da, Yang Chengzhi, Fei Xiaotong and Wu Zelin were judged as rightists and deprived of the right to engage in research and publish works, as their findings were considered as “poisonous weeds” of “bourgeois ethnology”. Among the 200 or so scholars engaged in the social and historical survey of ethnic minorities, 22 were classified as rightists and many others publicly criticized for “bourgeois speeches”, such as Yang Kun, Li Youyi and Cen Wu, and their research and publications were silenced. All these people were defined as “bourgeois ethnologists”. In June 1958, a meeting on ethnic studies was jointly held by the Ethnic Committee of National People’s Congress (NPC), CAS and MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA. With class struggle as the background theme, the meeting depreciated the influence of bourgeois ethnology and sociology on social surveys, announcing the plan to "pull out the white flag of capitalism and plant the red flag of socialism", and criticizing a number of old ethnologists. It adopted the “leap forward plan” for ethnic studies, emphasizing the" political leadership and value of the present over the past" in ethnological surveys and studies.
“The national meeting on scientific ethnic work, recently held by the CAS Institute of Ethnic Studies and MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA, summed up the experience of social and historical surveys of ethnic minorities over the last two years and thoroughly criticized reactionary bourgeois views, methods and erroneous tendencies towards bourgeois nationalism,” as was noted in a CEAC report to the CPC in 1958.
Prior to 1957, ethnic identification and social and historical surveys followed to a large extent the fieldwork standards under the guidance of ethnologists. After 1957, however, most of these norms were criticized for having bourgeois characteristics and the ethnic work was changed into a movement of the masses like the “Great Leap Forward”. Not only did social and historical surveys suffer losses, but the popularity and prestige of ethnology were also damaged.
After 1958, there was an escalation in the criticism of well-known ethnologists or the so-called “bourgeois scholars” and Western traditional ethnological theories. Despite continued ethnic studies, ethnology was further weakened as a discipline with the stagnation of theoretic and methodological research. The Soviet characteristics in its research model, framework and priorities were maintained till the discipline reconstruction in 1978.
“The principal contradiction in the current society is between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. In the field of ethnic studies, the principal contradiction is between the proletarian ideology and reactionary bourgeois ethnology. As the bourgeois ethnology serves for imperialism, bourgeois ethnologists in Old China were actually cultural compradors providing intelligence for imperialism. The Chinese people have always been negative about bourgeois ethnology in principle and of course, shall not tolerate the poison after the liberation of the country. Practice is the only fundamental source of scientific knowledge in ethnology,” as it was written by a major MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA leader after the “anti-rightist” campaign in 1958. When Fei Xiaotong and other scholars explained why they adopted the methodology of Western ethnology, this leader said “the functional school uses functional analysis instead of Marxist-Leninist class analysis to achieve the purpose of service of imperialism. They believe the methodology of bourgeois ethnology is useful except for its reactionary characteristic. We believe that bourgeois ethnology is downright reactionary pseudo-science that should be resolutely opposed no matter what attempt to revive it.” He added in the end, “Soviet ethnology is a valuable reference for us.” (Su, 1958).
In this tense atmosphere, scholars free from criticism were also involved in the anti-rightist campaign, ushering in another round of criticism of Western theory in ethnology. For example, famous scholars carried out comprehensive critique of various Western schools of ethnology, anthropology and sociology, and referred to the theories they had learnt in the West as “bourgeois school for the service of imperialism” and “reactionary theories for the service of bourgeois” (Liang, 1964). Inside the academia, there was criticism of the rightists and so-called “bourgeois scholars”. Fei Xiaotong was called “a lackey of imperialism” and “traitor of the peasant class” for his book entitled Peasant Life in China (Maurice Freedman, 1962).
At this time, all Western theories and methodologies in ethnology were known as “reactionary pseudo-science”. The development of ethnology was not primarily reliant on the strength of these scholars. “The fundamental forces of ethnic studies are party organizations and party-led agencies and people engaged in ethnic work,” according to the aforementioned MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA leader (Su, 1958).
In 1958, Sino-Soviet relations began to deteriorate. The next year, with the Soviet Union’s unilateral abrogation of hundreds of assistance and cooperation agreements, all Soviet experts including ethnologists were withdrawn from China, and bilateral academic exchanges, including the ethnological aspect, came to an end. The plans for the joint compilation of an East Asian and Soviet publication to commemorate Chinese ethnology were also canceled. The Sino-Soviet split became fully open in Chinese society with the CPC’s open letter titled Nine Commentaries on SCP Central Committee. The originally exemplary Soviet ethnology was immediately criticized as “revisionist ethnology”, which implicated the scholars engaged in Soviet ethnological research. The adjacent criticism of rightists, bourgeois ethnology and revisionist ethnology actually left Chinese ethnology homeless. It was suggested that Marxist ethnology did not exist and ethnology in itself was a bourgeois discipline (Song et al., 2004).
In 1958, the Institute of Ethnic Studies was formally set up under CAS, rather than the planned Institute of Ethnology. In the 1960s, “ethnic studies” completely replaced ethnology.
After 1963, the academic criticism of modern revisionism and bourgeois views was magnified as the whole country gave priority to “class struggle”, disqualifying ethnology from the status of discipline. There were articles by famous old ethnologists criticizing “bourgeois and revisionist ethnology” (Wang et al., 1998). The most representative was an article by Shi Jin in 1964, which questioned whether ethnology was science. “In nominal terms, there are a variety of ethnologies, such as Western ethnology, Soviet ethnology and old Chinese ethnology; practically speaking, they are all bourgeois ethnology. The bourgeois ethnology is not science at all, and neither are bourgeois social sciences. Socialist China only needs to criticize instead of carrying forward bourgeois social sciences ... there should be no room for the continued existence of old Chinese ethnology in socialist new China. For us, the only ethnology should be based on Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. It is the most fundamental and complete science for studying all ethnic issues. Therefore, we believe it unnecessary to develop Marxist ethnology other than the above-mentioned one. If there is such ethnology, it is nothing more than bourgeois ethnology labeled Marxism-Leninism or disguised under a red coat, and in essence, it is the same as bourgeois ethnology.” (Shi, 1964; Wang, 1998).
At the time, the Ethnological Section of the Department of History in MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA was the only ethnological Chinese teaching institution, but it was renamed the Ethnographical Section in 1964. Ethnology was replaced by “studies of ethnic issues” and actually came to an end in the mainland. Its death would be justified by a formal official sentence.
Cultural revolution period
During the period of the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, ethnology was very emphatically pronounced a “bourgeois discipline”, and teaching and research activities originally in the name of studies on ethnic issues were also completely halted.
The MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA Research Department, the only camp for higher education in ethnology, also suffered from stagnation. The scholars under the department, including Wu Wenzao, Yang Chengzhi, Fei Xiaotong and Lin Yaohua, were sent to the May 7 Cadre School for training. For the purpose of compiling profiles of ethnic minorities and preparing materials on boundaries and ethnic studies, the Research Office was established under MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA MINZU UNIVERSITY OF CHINA, comprising scholars transferred from the cadre school. More specifically, Wu Wenzao, Fei Xiaotong, Xie Bingxin, Kuang Pingzhuang and Li Wenjin were responsible for compilation and translation, while Song Shuhua, Shi Lianzhu, Wang Furen, Wu Heng, Chen Fengxian, Zhu Ning and Huang Shuping were responsible for preparing profiles of ethnic minorities. In December 1974, the Research Office printed the Brief Introduction to Chinese Ethnic Minorities (Draft, 12 volumes in total), edited the internal publication Translated Excerpts on Ethnic Issues, and translated materials (13 issues in total) about foreign nationalities, the history of Russian aggression against China, and Chinese nationals abroad. It also contributed to the country’s diplomacy and border negotiations by providing a wealth of information about border areas and ethnic groups.