Chinese anthropologists shifted their focus from rural to urban areas
"Urban disease" exerting a negative influence on humans' living conditions
Reducing “urban disease” and moving to the next level of urbanization is a central topic for sustainable urban development. As a balance between theory and application, urban anthropology is a discipline uniquely equipped to enhance knowledge and understanding of urban society.
Chinese urban anthropology is keeping pace with the West
A subset of anthropology, urban anthropology was consolidated in the 1960s to focus specifically on how the urban environment influences human behaviors. Within China, research on urban anthropology began in the 1980s.The first International Urban Anthropology Conference was held at the end of 1989 and the beginning of 1990 in Beijing. The proceedings of the conference were compiled and edited by Ruan Xihu, a researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and published as Urban Anthropology the following year by Huaxia Publishing House. China Union of Urban Anthropology (the predecessor of China Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) was established in 1992. In 2000, the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences held its inter-congress in Beijing, which was a landmark for the development of the discipline in China.
At present, many universities and research institutions regard urban anthropology as a key discipline. Two most significant research bases are the School of Sociology and Anthropology at Sun Yat-Sen University and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at CASS. Additionally, some scholars from the Institute of Ethnology and Sociology at Minzu University of China and the School of Ethnology and Sociology at South-Central University for Nationalities are engaged in this field.
Commenting on the level of disciplinary development, Ruan Xihu explained that “in fact, urban anthropology is a newly-arisen discipline abroad, which keeps the same pace as us.”Ruan is familiar with the discipline’s overall history and development. Zhang Jijiao, another researcher at CASS’s Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology and the co-chairman of the Urban Anthropology Special Committee added, “We were really confident about establishing urban anthropology in China. We never feel the gap between Chinese urban anthropology and that in the West is huge.”
Xu Jieshun, a professor at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at Guangxi University for Nationalities, explained that Chinese anthropologists’ concerns in urban anthropology are an extension of rural concerns. In the 1980s, the first wave of a large-scale influx of migrant laborers poured into urban areas. At the same time, many Chinese anthropologists shifted their focus from rural to urban areas and the welfare of the newly arrived migrant laborers.
In the process of economic development and urbanization, urban anthropology’ shave caught the attention of other academic disciplines. Shen Qingji, a professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University, pointed out that urban anthropology can enhance the understanding of human concerns in urban planning.
Urbanization provides fertile ground for research topics
Urbanization in China has endowed urban anthropology with abundant topics for research, creating a fertile environment for innovation in theory and application.
Currently, urbanization in China is closely connected with industrial transfer. Zhang Jijiao explained that his research combines theories of urbanization with industrial transfer, industrialization, marketization, and economic and cultural transformation of ethnic minority areas. “The insights of urban anthropology should become as broad as those of sociology, which is just the same as what Mr. Fei Xiaotong (a well-known Chinese sociologist) did in combining specific issues with broad topics. However, Chinese anthropology, including urban anthropology, lacks great masters like Mr. Fei. It lacks the broad-viewed, more general theses,” Zhang added.
The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 414, Feb.6, 2013
Translated by Zhang Mengying