Social Engineering and the Social Sciences in China, 1919-1949

Description

In this 2001 book Yung-chen Chiang tells the story of the origins, hopes, visions and achievements of the social sciences movement in China during the first half of the twentieth century. He focuses on the efforts of social scientists at three institutions - the Yanjing Sociology Department, Nankai Institute of Economics, and Chen Hansheng's Marxist agrarian research enterprise - to relate their disciplines to the needs of Chinese society. As all three groups received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, their stories offer a unique window on to Sino-American interactions, revealing how the social sciences became a lingua franca of the cultural frontier. Drawing on an impressive variety of archival materials used here for the first time, this study corrects and enriches current scholarship, presenting both a more detailed and panoramic view. Chiang's analysis engages the complex and broader issues of the transfer, indigenization and international patronage of social science disciplines.

'Chiang's study will benefit those interested in the development of the social sciences in China ... Chiang's book pays greater attention to the financial and interpersonal components of the Republican-era social scientific enterprise ...'. China Information