Renowned Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong (upper right) participated in Dialogue in 2003. Launched in 1999, the program has made a valuable contribution to debate in Chinese academia. (PHOTO: CSST)

 

Researchers are always seeking new methods to showcase academic achievements and foster public understanding. Currently, there are four main formats: text, photo, audio and video. Except for text, the photo, audio and video formats have only been available since the early 20th century.
 

Development of information technology has driven advancement of the photo, audio and video formats. “They have their own techniques, rhetoric and aesthetics, and fulfil an irreplaceable role in academic research. They are more than just accessories to research,” said Luo Hongguang, a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

Since 1999, researchers from the Institute of Sociology at CASS have explored new ways of documenting and publicizing academic achievements. They have produced a video series titled Dialogue and ethnographic documentaries. The project of building a digital museum of humanities and social sciences was also launched in 2014.

Keeping track of academic ideas
At the end of 1999, Luo organized a working group for the Dialogue series. Over the past decade they have created 30 episodes, five of which have been produced by the Social Sciences Academic Press under CASS. More than 60 renowned scholars from home and abroad have participated in the series.

Renowned scholars appearing on Dialogue include: German philosopher Jurgen Habermas; American historian Prasenjit Duara; Japanese sociologist Sasaki Masamichi; Chinese sociologists Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005), Lu Xueyi (1933-2013), Li Peilin, Jing Tiankui, Zheng Hangsheng (1936-2014), Li Yinhe; Chinese ethnologist Hao Shiyuan; and Chinese famous scholar of humanities Wang Hui.
 

Program topics cover numerous disciplines including philosophy, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, politics, religion and culture. Popular episodes include “The Problem of Understanding on Cultural Diversity and Modernity,” “Governance and Participation in the Globalization Trend” and “Museum and Cultural Representation and Protection.”
 

So, why does the program’s format favor dialogue over traditional interview? As the director of the program, Luo said that it is easier to promote different academic ideas through dialogue. Chinese scholars have the opportunity to have their voice heard by foreign experts and vice versa, with both sides enriching academic discourse.
 

Guest scholars hail from different countries and have diverse academic and cultural backgrounds. “This is largely because scholars with different backgrounds can share new ideas through dialogue,” said Luo.
 

Some scholars claim the program is a good channel for recording valuable insights into Chinese and world academia and ideology. “I have appeared on numerous TV shows all over the world, but Dialogue is the first program I have been able to share academic ideas with scholars,” said American anthropologist Marshall Sahlins.
 

Research through documentary
“If we just focus on texts [for surveys], the cultural scenery and communication are hard to accurately record and risk being lost forever,” said Luo, adding that researchers at the Institute of Sociology at CASS therefore began turning to visual anthropology.
 

In recent years, the institute has produced a total of 10 visual anthropology works and applied new research methods to national surveys and other projects.
 

Producing an anthropological documentary is more challenging than shooting a standard documentary. When shooting an anthropological documentary about a village nursing home, Luo conducted a long-term investigation into nursing homes in Beijing and other cities. He also researched related literature and conducted a field survey at Dayao Mountain in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

When shooting another documentary related to cultural and belief changes of the Huayao Dai community, an ethnic minority in Yunnan Province, Wu Qiao, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at CASS and the director of the documentary, conducted a field survey over one-and-a-half years. Wu learned the local language, collected text materials and studied the community’s social network.
 

“If we do not fully understand the kinship system, social organization, customs and religious concepts of the ethnic group, it is hard to profoundly reflect their social transition in the context of modernization and urbanization,” said Wu.
 

Compared to text resources, an anthropological documentary is better at showcasing the innermost feelings of characters. It plays an irreplaceable role in the promotion of academic knowledge and will become a new development direction of visual anthropology, claimed Wu.
 

“The presentation of photo, audio and video formats is conducive to preserving materials for future teaching and research,” said Luo, adding that the next urgent challenge is standardizing channels. He also said that the digital museum of humanities and social sciences being built by CASS is a public platform to display collections of photo, audio and video materials.

 

Deng Zhimei is a reporter from Chinese Social Sciences Today.