The contributions of Chinese anthropology: A conversation between Roberto Malighetti and Yang Shengmin
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2837
Questo articolo è il prodotto di una relazione a lungo termine tra il Prof. Yang Shengmin (Minzu University of China) e il Prof. Roberto Malighetti (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca). È il risultato di una collaborazione scientifica iniziata nel 2012 a Pechino, proseguita con il congresso Antropologie dalla Cina. Primo convegno italiano (Università di Milano-Bicocca, 13.12. 2013), e consolidatasi con le attività didattiche alla Minzu University of China. Il testo ha assunto la sua attuale forma nel corso di una conversazione che ha avuto luogo nello studio del Prof. Yang presso il Collaborative Innovation Center for Ethnic Minority Development (Minzu University, Beijing) il 6 giugno 2016. Trascritto e rivisto da entrambi gli autori, il paper considera l'importanza dell'antropologia cinese e il suo contributo al dialogo internazionale. Approfondisce le possibilità aperte agli studiosi cinesi per offrire una articolazione originale della loro tradizione disciplinare con le influenze occidentali che hanno accompagnato, fin dall'inizio, lo sviluppo dell’antropologia e dell’etnologia in Cina. Le proposte cinesi sono sintetizzate in tre approcci: storico, marxista, applicativo, e focalizzato allo studio delle minoranze.
application/pdf
2239-625X
2837
1
en
Yang Shengmin 杨圣敏
Anuac
The contributions of Chinese anthropology: A conversation between Roberto Malighetti and Yang Shengmin
Text.Serial.Journal
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/anuac
6
Interviews
2017-07-17
2017-05-26
2017-07-17
2017-07-17
301-317
1
Yang Shengmin 杨圣敏
2017/07/17
10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2837
301
Minzu University, Beijing, China
2239-625X
1
en
317
The contributions of Chinese anthropology: A conversation between Roberto Malighetti and Yang Shengmin
https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/anuac/article/download/2837/2582
6
                                                 2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317




                                                                                       INTERVISTE

The contributions of Chinese anthropology
A conversation between Roberto Malighetti and Yang Shengmin
Roberto MALIGHETTI
University of Milano-Bicocca
Yang SHENGMIN 杨圣敏
Minzu University, Beijing




ABSTRACT: This article is the product of a long-term relationship between Prof. Yang
Shengmin (Minzu University of China) and Prof. Roberto Malighetti (University of Mi-
lano-Bicocca). It is the outcome of a scientific collaboration that started in 2012 in Bei-
jing, continued with the conference Anthropologies From in China. The First Italian Con-
ference (University of Milano-Bicocca, 13.12. 2013), and was consolidated by the didactic
activities at the Minzu University of China. It took the present form in the course of a
conversation in the offices of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Ethnic Minority
Development (Minzu University, Beijing) on the 6th of June 2016. Transcribed and then
revised by both authors, the text considers the importance of Chinese anthropology and
its contribution to the international dialogue. It probes the possibilities open to Chinese
anthropology to offer an original articulation of its tradition with the Western influ-
ences that accompanied, from the very beginning, the development of anthropology in
China. The Chinese innovative proposals are synthetized under three approaches: the
historical, the Marxist, the applied, and the study of minorities.
KEYWORDS: CHINESE ANTHROPOLOGY, HISTORY, MARXISM, APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY, MINORITIES AND ETHNIC GROUPS.




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © Roberto Malighetti, Yang Shengmin
The contributions of Chinese anthropology. A conversation between Roberto Malighetti and Yang Shengmin
2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317.
ISSN: 2239-625X - DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2835
302                                                 ROBERTO MALIGHETTI,YANG SHENGMIN




   ROBERTO MALIGHETTI – From the very beginning Chinese anthropology devel-
oped its positions in a constant dialogue with Western anthropology. It fol-
lowed the major paradigm shifts that marked the history of the discipline. It
seems that the introduction into China of the first anthropological book was
the translation of a text written by a German scholar, Michael Haberlandr,
entitled Ethnology. Published in 1903, it provided a survey of the ethnic
groups of the world. The first Chinese scholar to use the word "anthropology"
was Sun Xuewu in an article published in 1916 by the magazine of the Chi-
nese Academy of Sciences. It was entitled An Introduction to Anthropology
and it dealt with the state of the art of European and American anthropology
(Liu Mingxin 2014; Malighetti 2014).
   YANG SHENGMIN – In China, anthropology and ethnology took their first
steps at the turn of the Nineteenth and the Twentieth century, in close con-
nection with Western classical ethnology. The institutions and the research
centers interpreted the scientific systems and the anthropological theories
elaborated in Europe and North America. Historians distinguish the School
of the South, considered the original source of the discipline, from the
School of the North, based in Yanjing University. The first was mainly influ-
enced by American diffusionism, the second by structural-functionalism. At
the same time they began a long process of emancipation from Western eth-
nology which led to the definition, in the late Thirties, of quite original per-
spectives (Yang Shengmin 2003).
   R. M. – The School of the South was created by Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940)
who, after having served as Minister of Education in the provisional nation-
alist government (1912), founded in 1928 the Academia Sinica. In 1934 he es-
tablished a Department of Anthropology, dedicated to the study of Chinese
minorities. In a 1926 article he introduced the term Ethnology and identified
it with the study of minorities (Cai Yuanpei 1926). The School of the South
embraced Anglo-American diffusionism and studied the history of the ethnic
groups, the problems of cultural transmission, internal migrations and Chi-
nese national integration. The School of the North, on the other hand, con-
centrated especially on the study of rural communities, border areas and eth-
nic minorities. It was directed by Wu Wenzao (1901-1985) who trained some
of the most important Chinese anthropologists: Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005),
Lin Yaohua (1910-2000) and Li Anzhai (1900-1985) (Hu Hongbao, Wang Jian-
min, Zhang Haiyang 2006).


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHINESE ANTHROPOLOGY                                              303


   Y. S. – The distinction between the two schools is not only theoretical and
methodological. It also refers to their research interests. The School of the
South focused on Eastern and Southern China. It was deeply influenced by
American historiography. It applied an historical approach and emphasized
the use of archaeological materials and the study of ancient literature. It did
research around themes such as the origin of the Chinese ethnic groups and
their interrelations. For this School the study of national history was part of
the field of ethnology. The School of the North, on the other hand, took Eu-
ropean functionalism as its main analytical tool and favored theoretical in-
terpretations, going beyond the phenomenal basis to analyze the connec-
tions and the links between empirical cases. It also paid great attention to
historical texts. The School of the North believed that the study of the past
did not have to be restricted to the analysis of social and cultural evolution,
but, rather, could be employed to explain contemporary society (Yang Sheng-
min 2014).
   R. M. – The protagonists of both orientations developed their prospects in
close relationship with the West. Cai Yuanpei completed his education in Eu-
rope. He studied philosophy and anthropology at the University of Leipzig
(Germany) between 1906 and 1909 and repeatedly visited Germany and
France (1911-1915). Fu Sinian (1896–1950), the first director of the Institute
of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica, studied experimental psy-
chology at the University College, London (1920-23). Li Ji (1896–1979), occu-
pied the first Chinese chair of anthropology at Nankai University (Tianjin),
after having earned his doctorate at Harvard (1923). Ling Chunsheng (1902–
1981), studied in France. Similarly, the funder and first director of the School
of the North, Wu Wenzao, after graduating from Tsinghua University (Bei-
jing) in 1923, studied with Franz Boas at Columbia University, where he
gained his Ph.D degree. Wu encouraged the international mobility of his stu-
dents, facilitating their contact with the most prominent foreign intellectu-
als: Li Anzhai obtained his Ph.D in 1947 at Yale University under the supervi-
sion of Sapir, after having studied at Berkeley with Alfred Kroeber and Robert
Lowie; in 1940 Lin Yaohua completed his PhD thesis (printed in English in
1948) under the direction of Raymond Firth; Fei Xiaotong studied with Mali-
nowski and obtained his PhD degree at the London School of Economics in
1938, with a work published in English the following year. Wu was also a
great promoter of an efficient policy of what today we call academic interna-
tionalization. Shortly before the constitution of the Association of Chinese
Ethnologists in 1934 and of the foundation of its journal in 1936 (Bulletin of
Ethnology), he brought to Yanjing University some of the most distinguished


                                            2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
304                                                            ROBERTO MALIGHETTI,YANG SHENGMIN


social scientists of the time: Robert Parkin in 1932, Alfred Radcliffe-Brown in
1935, Leslie White between 1937 and 1939.
   After the foundation of the People Republic of China the perspectives
changed, but the importance of the European theoretical influences remai-
ned very strong, especially the Soviet understanding of Marxism.
   Y. S. – Chinese ethnology was renewed with the establishment of the New
China in 1949. From a theoretical point of view, it adopted the model and the
system of the Soviet school and developed in opposition to “Western bour-
geois ethnology”. It elaborated Marxist thought, its vision of the world and
its methodology, particularly historical materialism, mixing it with local
characteristics and with a strong emphasis on ethnographic research.
   Marxism and ethnology are the products of the same modern era: both be-
long to the middle of the nineteenth century. Marx and Engels made exten-
sive use of ethnological materials1. They utilized ethnological data to provide
interpretations of human society and of the laws of evolution 2. Their texts
were used by the Soviet school and articulated with the prospects of the Eu-
ropean geographical school. Soviet ethnology, until the dissolution of the
Union, formed the mainstream of Marxist ethnology. It focused its research
on the traditional cultures of the ethnic minorities, on the historical ap-
proach and on the study of ecological problems.
   After World War II, with the change of the international order, the driving
force of national liberation movements gave great importance to Marxism.
However, even if some Western ethnologists began to apply Marxist con-
cepts, Marxist ethnological thought was relegated to a marginal place, ex-
cluded from the dominant Western currents of thought and from the educa-
tional systems. The reasons are many. Surely a key role was played by the im-
pact of the Cold War on ethnological research. The state of tension between
the two blocks also influenced the Soviet scholars, inducing an oppositional
attitude towards Western colleagues. The failure to communicate compro-
mised the development of the discipline. It also impeded the full maturation
of the Marxist school, not only from a theoretical and methodological point
of view but also from the point of view of its results. With the founding of

1. The main references are: Lewis H. Morgan’s Ancient Society (1877), Henry Summer Maine’s
Lectures on the Early History of Institutions (1875) and John Lubbock’s Prehistoric times (1865).
2. Of great ethnological relevance are two books written by Engels: The Condition of the
Working Class in England (1845) and Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
(1884). See also Marx’s “Conspectus of Lewis Morgan’s Ancient Society” in Marx Engels On
Literature and Art (1976) and The Ethnological Notebook of Carl Marx, edited by Lawrence
Krader (1972).


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHINESE ANTHROPOLOGY                                                305


New China, history gave to Chinese ethnology the task of developing the
heritage of Marxist ethnology and of creating a school that could efficiently
combine theory and practice.
   R. M. – The specificity of the Chinese anthropological tradition has always
grounded itself in the ethnographic studies of the different groups that com-
pose Chinese reality. The 1952 reform of higher education integrated anthro-
pology ( 人类学 ), considered a “bourgeois pseudo-science”, into the discipline
of ethnology (民族学), together with most of the other social sciences. Ethnol-
ogy was conceived to be the study of minzu ( 民族 ), a complex and controver-
sial term that can be translated with nation, minority or ethnic group 3. Most
of the scholars were brought together within the Research Division of the
Central Institute for Minorities of the Minzu University, founded that same
year. Under the guidance of the leading masters of the time, scientists partic-
ipated in several government initiatives aimed at the understanding of Chi-
nese ethnic groups and at the construction of national unity. Among them,
two major projects were particularly important: The Nationality Identification
Project and The Research Project for the Histories of Ethnic Minorities 4. Soviet
historical teleology and the conjugation of Engels’ model of social evolution
with those of Morgan and Stalin were used to identify the different minzu on
the basis of their modes of production: primitive, slave, feudal, capitalist and
socialist. In New China the initial paradigm was based on the four common-
alities defined by Joseph Stalin: common language, common territory, com-
mon economic life, common psychological conformation.
   Y. S. – The Research Division of the Central Institute for Minorities (Minzu
University) was founded in 1952. Later, the name changed several times,
from Institute of Ethnological Research to Department of Ethnology and
then to School of Ethnology and Sociology. From its foundation, Minzu Uni-
versity has been the symbol of Chinese ethnology. This institution was the
first school of ethnology and the first research center of the New China. It is
also the first to have brought together eminent scholars of ethnology, sociol-

3. Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), the founding father of the Republic of China and its first presi-
dent, seems to have introduced the concept minzu, deriving it from the Japanese word min-
zoku that designate the "nation". He used it as a tool to mobilize the Chinese people against
the imperial Manchu government of the Qing dynasty (Guldin 1990).
4. These projects were conceived to serve the interests of the nation building agenda along
with the understanding and governance of the non-Han peoples. They registered more than
400 separate groups and started the identification of the minorities that compose today’s
China: 41 minorities were recognized in the first census of 1953, and 53 in that of 1964. The
1982 and 1990 censuses recognized the 56 minorities that formally exist now (Yang Sheng-
min 1994, 2003).

                                            2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
306                                                  ROBERTO MALIGHETTI,YANG SHENGMIN


ogy, anthropology, history and languages of minority groups. Among the
most distinguished scholars there are Wu Wenzao, Fei Xiaotong, Lin Yaohua,
Jian Bozan, Wu Zelin, Feng Jiasheng, Wang Zhonghan, Suluo Cheng, Chen
Yongling, Song Shuhua.
   Fei Xiaotong, who was deputy director of Minzu University, became direc-
tor of the School and strongly promoted the ethnographic research. Minzu
University became one of the most important consultative institutions for
national policies on ethnic issues. Its scholars were involved in a number of
important government initiatives, such as those you mentioned: The Nation-
ality Identification Project and The Research Project for the Histories of Ethnic
Minorities. They also produced the many volumes of the Translation Series of
Ethnic Issue and Collected Papers on China’s Ethnic Issues. In 1956, the center
founded New China’s first academic structure specialized in training scholars
on how to do ethnographic research. Based on a Marxist model, the studies
on Chinese society started to build a new perspective on anthropology.
   The path was interrupted in 1957 when the “anti-rightist campaign” af-
fected the major scholars, including Wu Wenzao, Pan Guangdan, Yang Chen-
zhi and Fei Xiaotong. Moreover, after the break between the Chinese Com-
munist Party and the Soviet Union (1961), the Soviet school was declared
"bourgeois and revisionist". Ethnology was integrated in so-called "ethnic
studies" that mixed different disciplines such as anthropology, history, phi-
losophy, economics and literature. This situation lasted until the changes
that occurred after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).
   R. M. – With Deng Xiaoping’s 1978 “reforms and opening-up” policies,
Minzu University renewed its importance. In this period you started to play a
relevant role inside Minzu University where you first registered as a Master’s
student in the History of Chinese Minority Nationalities, then as a Ph.D stu-
dent in Anthropology, under the supervision of Lin Yaohua. Later you be-
came Professor and then Dean of the School of Ethnology and Sociology, as
well as Director of the Institute of the Strategic Studies on Ethnic Issues and
of many other Institutes that you founded or participated in founding. Re-
cently you created the Collaborative Innovation Center for Ethnic Minority
Development.
   Y. S. – In 1980 the Division of Central Minority Institute Research was re-
named the Institute of Ethnological Research and was placed under the di-
rection of Lin Yaohua (1983). The following year the first doctoral school was
established. In 1985 the Institute introduced specializations in archaeology
and museology. In 1986 the directorship passed to Wang Furen and the uni-



2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHINESE ANTHROPOLOGY                                              307


versity system was structured in four levels: undergraduate, master, doctoral
and post-doctoral. In 1988, the National Education Commission recognized
the School of Ethnology of Minzu University as the most important ethno-
logical institution in the country and as a strategic institution for the na-
tional interest. In 1992, the department was directed by Ma Qicheng, Zhuang
Kongzhao, Song Shuhua and, from 1996 to 2011, by myself. In 1993, with the
approval of the National Commission for Education, Minzu University estab-
lished the School for Ethnological Research, divided into two sections: the
Department of Ethnology and the Institute of Ethnology. The School also in-
cluded the Center for Ethnic Policies, the Department of Tibetan Studies, the
Department of Museology and the Department of Archaeology.
   Over the last 30 years the growth and development of the School reflected
and contributed to the rapid expansion of anthropology and ethnology
throughout China. The number of students and researchers passed from 300
to 1000. Since then, the graduate school of Ethnology of Minzu University
has been ranked first in the listing of the institutions of higher education of
the Ministry of Education. Today it is the largest institution for ethnological
study in China, and is in the forefront both for the number of ethnographic
works, and for the numbers of researchers and professors. It has four doctoral
programs (ethnology, cultural anthropology, sociology, ethno-sociology) and
six masters (ethnology, anthropology, ethno-sociology, sociology, ethnology
of cultural heritage, archeology and museology).
   R. M. – Starting from the end of the Seventies there has been a progressive
increase in the number of institutions and scholars throughout China. In
1981 the department of anthropology of Zhongshan University (Guangzhou,
Guangdong Province) reopened. The same year the Society of Chinese An-
thropology was established at Xianmen University, where the First National
Symposium of Anthropology was organized and a new department of anthro-
pology was created in 1984. Over the following years new departments were
established in different universities (for example: Shanghai, Nanjing,
Sichuan, Wuhan, Shandong, Yunnan, Tsinghua). In 1993 the Institute of Soci-
ology of the University of Beijing was renamed “Institute of Sociology and
Anthropology”. In that same period the main national institutions of social
research such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), organized
different anthropology programs.
   Your generation, who came after the 1978 reforms, continued the work of
the great masters of the past. It increased the dialogue with perspectives
elaborated internationally. You yourself spent a considerable amount of time


                                            2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
308                                                ROBERTO MALIGHETTI,YANG SHENGMIN


working abroad. I recall your collaborations as a Visiting Professor at Simon
Frazer University (Canada), at Stanford and Columbia University (USA), at
the Max-Plank Institute of Ethnology (Germany) and at Aich University
(Japan). In addition to participating in numerous international conferences
and congresses (included the one we held in Milan-Bicocca University in
2013) you have worked in several international cooperation projects financed
by prestigious Institutions (among them the Ford Foundation, UNESCO).
   Y. S. – In the thirty years that followed 1978, Chinese ethnology entered a
very fertile phase, consistent with the international importance achieved by
China. Chinese anthropology increased his influence in the international
arena. In 2009 the Chinese Association of Ethnology and Anthropology orga-
nized in the city of Kunming (Yunnan) the Sixteenth World Congress of the
International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES).
More than six thousand people attended it. This was a significant step to-
ward the international recognition of Chinese ethnology and anthropology.
   R. M. – Anthropology as a discipline originated in Europe in the 19 th cen-
tury with the expansion of European economic and political interests. It
qualified itself as a specifically modern and Eurocentric perspective toward
what is not modern, denying the possibility to analyze modernity (like the
eye cannot see itself). This new form of rationality attempted to understand
other people’s cultures, guaranteeing a division of labor between anthropol-
ogy and sociology according to the motto: “sociology studies the west, an-
thropology all the rest”. The functionalist school encouraged the analysis of
discrete, self-contained and homogeneous cultures in ways congruent with
the pragmatism of the colonial governance (Malighetti 2001).
   When, after the Second World War, the center of the world moved from
Europe to the United States, the general headquarters of knowledge migrated
there. The profound political and social changes as well as those related to
the scientific status of knowledge substantially modified the discipline. The
definition of anthropology was emancipated from the examination of a spe-
cific type of society. It grounded itself on the elaboration of a transversal
viewpoint that crosses every society, including the scientist’s own. What was
initially defined as the analysis of complex societies took the form of the
analysis of the complexity of all societies and cultures.
   Now that the centers of the world are shifting and multiplying, deleting
the colonial dichotomy between center and periphery, the anthropology of
the disciplinary traditions once described as "minor" have unique opportuni-
ties to expound the scientific dialogue. In this context I think Chinese an-
thropology has a crucial role to play.


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHINESE ANTHROPOLOGY                                              309


   Y. S. – Scientific thoughts and theories are the product of their cultural
and historical contexts. Ethnology originated in the context of the colonial
expansion. Still today its objects, theories and research methods bear the
marks of the colonial thought. After the end of World War II, Western ethnol-
ogy turned gradually towards the analysis of modern societies. It continued
to use concepts and values derived from the analysis of the so-called primi-
tive societies, to endorse Western expansion worldwide. It played an impor-
tant role in the affirmation of the superiority of the West and of the sup-
posed universalism of its culture.
   Ethnology is at the base of Western cultural hegemony. It acted efficiently
despite the fact that, according to the same scientific value system, it cannot
be considered objective and neutral. Malinowski taught us to consider an-
thropology as a modern science, based on empirical researches and on field-
work. Anthropologists thought that their discipline was able to explain all
kinds of societies, to understand their different features, and to explain the
reasons for these differences. They considered, proudly, that their researches
could produce a rational and certain knowledge.
   However, the criticisms that arose in the Eighties of the anthropological
perspectives, mainly coming from the so-called “interpretive turn” and from
postmodernism, gradually eroded the optimism of classical ethnology, show-
ing its limits and shortcomings. They posed important questions, raising se-
rious doubts about the scientific reliability and objectivity of the ethnogra-
phies. Obviously these perspectives themselves have strong limitations. The
same Clifford Geertz who criticized earlier anthropological perspectives
never provided clear and comprehensive explanations of his own theories
and methods. His legacy has been taken up also by "hyper-interpretive ap-
proaches" and forms of epistemological and methodological nihilism that
came to reject the same practice of fieldwork. This I think it is very danger-
ous for our discipline. Anthropology cannot exist without long and sound
fieldwork.
   In spite of this, the critical debate that postmodernism introduced in an-
thropology pushed the discipline to reconsider its foundations. It also con-
tributed to encourage Chinese ethnology and anthropology to deepen their
experience and to develop their own perspectives.
   R. M. – Chinese anthropology as a whole has always tried to develop its
discourse interpreting and elaborating the Western influences in original
terms. From the very beginning Wu Wenzao and his students sought to pro-
pose an open model capable to think the national question from the point of
view of a culturally complex China. Writing in reaction to the first republican

                                            2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
310                                                 ROBERTO MALIGHETTI,YANG SHENGMIN


nationalist policies, Wu conceived of the reality of China using the principle
of “unity amidst diversity” ( 多 元 一 体 ). To this end, he used the concept of
Tianxia ( 天下 ), literally “under the sky”, coined in the period of the Zhou Dy-
nasty (1046-256 BC), to comprehend and integrate the entire geographical
and cultural space. In his first article, written when he was a student at Co-
lumbia University, he criticized the European theories of the Nation-State. In
this essay, The Nation and the State, published in 1926 in the Chinese Over-
seas Chinese Student Union Journal, he opposed the Nationalist Party’s con-
ceptions, and proposed the idea of China as an example of a State consisting
of a variety of nations (Wu 1926; Malighetti, Wang Mingming 2014). Wu’s
ideas were later taken up and developed by Fei Xiaotong and articulated in
complex ways. Fei articulated his conceptions to underline the intercultural
fusions in manners that influenced prestigious foreign scholars such as Skin-
ner (Skinner 1964). In his work on what he called the Tibet-Yi corridor, Fei
refused to consider as "isolated" the areas that begin in the north, on the bor-
der of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan, and end up in the southeast of Tibet and
northwest of Yunnan. Instead, he saw these areas as places of old and inten-
sive contacts between cultures, populated by ethnic groups and nationalities
closely connected and interrelated by history (Fei Xiaotong 1989).
   While the European functionalist anthropologies were worried about
putting their objects of analysis in closed units, with well-defined and dis-
crete boundaries, Chinese scholars were already developing complex and, in
many ways, pioneering positions, anticipating some contemporary reflec-
tions.
   Y. S. – For a century, the establishment of a Chinese School of anthropol-
ogy and ethnology has been a dream pursued by several generations. Today
international anthropology develops very slowly. I want to contend that it is
unable to deal with the big problems that cross national borders and face hu-
manity as a whole: poverty, economic development, environmental degrada-
tion. In this respect I think Chinese anthropology can make important con-
tributions. Its use of Marxism can be very effective in understanding the
global situation. Marxism allows for the connecting of ethnography to larger
problems, the micro to the macro, the local with the global. It does not deal
only with the specific groups that have power. It considers the majority,
those who do not have it.
   Chinese research centers are working hard to develop their own theories,
to sharpen their own values, to elaborate their understanding of the world
and to leave their mark in the international flows of knowledge. This is not



2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHINESE ANTHROPOLOGY                                              311


mere vainglory or nationalism. Rather it comes from the need to enrich sci-
entific dialogue and to develop Chinese society. The road to the establish-
ment of a Chinese anthropological perspective is long and difficult. But the
elaboration of Chinese contributions, at a national and at an international
level, is not only our duty and responsibility, but also an opportunity and an
honor.
   R. M. – As early as 1938 Bronislaw Malinowski formulated a very positive
comment on the anthropology of China. In the preface of the book of his
Chinese student Fei Xiaotong, he stated that “independently and sponta-
neously there had been organized in China a sociological attack on real prob-
lems of culture and applied anthropology, an attack which embodies all my
dreams and desiderata” (Malinowski 1939:7). Maurice Freedman took this
consideration out of oblivion after 25 years. In his 1962 Malinowski Memo-
rial Lecture at the London School of Economics he foresaw the coming of “A
Chinese phase in social anthropology” (Freedman 1979). Freedman argued
for the importance of Chinese anthropology differently from Malinowski,
who considered the works of the Chinese scholars realized in the Thirties. He
mainly reflected upon the perspective of the researches conducted by foreign
scholars. How would you summarize the features and the importance of the
Chinese contributions to the international debate?
   Y. S. – The main characteristics of Chinese anthropology and ethnology
can be briefly considered under three headings, closely interrelated. The first
is the historical approach. Chinese historical tradition is deep and rich of
millenary documents. The importance of this aspect has been set off by the
Schools of the South and of the North as well as by Marxist ethnology. This,
by itself, is very important.
   A second component of Chinese anthropology is the ethnographic study
of borders areas and of ethnic groups. It began following the dramatic ag-
gression of Japanese imperialism in Manchuria and in the Northeast. These
studies also played an important role in the nation-building processes. These
ethnographic researches, as we already mentioned, absorbed the energies of
the Chinese ethnologists according to aims and interests that are still valid
today.
   Finally, an important feature of Chinese anthropology is determined by its
strong applied approach. Compared with the Western colleagues, Chinese
scholars have always been more interested in the application of the research
to the solution of social problems. With the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the
founding of the Republic, the necessity of building a new nation and a new
society emerged. The war of resistance against Japan in the Thirties caused a

                                            2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
312                                                  ROBERTO MALIGHETTI,YANG SHENGMIN


serious national and territorial crisis and had a profound impact on the de-
velopment of the discipline. The need to resist the Japanese invasion, to for-
tify and protect the borders, further stimulated the involvement of the social
researchers. Scholars saw in the discipline an effective means to serve soci-
ety, overcoming the limitations of a purely academic interest.
   R. M. – The three features (history, application, minorities) are well inte-
grated into your own biography and professional career. As we already men-
tioned you first graduated in history (Northwest University, Xian, Shaanxi),
then you received your master degree in History of Chinese Minority Nation-
alities (Minzu University, Beijing) and then your PhD in Anthropology
(Minzu University). You continued to combine history and ethnography in
your long and deep experience of fieldwork throughout China and especially
on the ethnic groups of the Northwestern part of the country: on the Tajik,
Tatar, Kazakh groups, and, in particular, on the Uyghur.
   Y. S. – I was born in 1951, in a Hui area of Liaoning Province, and I grew up
in Beijing near Minzu University. My middle school was Tsinghua Middle
School. I wanted to study history but the cultural revolution started. I went
to rural area in Xianbei province and worked there as a farmer and then as
factory worker for almost 6 years. After the Cultural Revolution I started my
university career, as you said, firstly as a student of history at the North-West
University. In 1982 I went to Minzu, where I studied the History of the Chi-
nese Minority Nationalities as master student and then anthropology as a
PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Lin Yaohua. In the course of my
work I tried to combine history, ethnography and application. I did this in
the studies on the relations between environment and culture and then of
the history of minority people in China, especially of the people of North-
west China and of the Uyghur of Xinjiang. I conducted an intense fieldwork
for more that 30 years, convinced that that to understand the current situa-
tion of minority groups in China you have to deeply understand their history.
My comparative approach brought me to probe into the relations between
minorities, between the Han and the Mongolian, the Hui, the Tibetan and the
Uyghur.
   I worked on the relations between the Uyghur and the Han in collabora-
tion with Peking University and Peking Normal University, especially with
the department of psychology. We adopted a psychological approach to mea-
sure the degree of prejudices between Han and Uyghur. We found out that
the prejudices between these two groups are the highest in China. Yet, they
are inferior to the prejudices degree between White and Black peoples of the



2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHINESE ANTHROPOLOGY                                              313


United States, where the research model was originally adopted. Moreover
the ethnographic evidence that results from our studies shows that the rela-
tion between the Uyghur and the Han is not so bad. I can assure that the lo -
cal people would agree with this statement.
   I probed into the analysis of the origin of the Uyghur people, an issue that
has important political implications. There are heated discussions about this
topic. Some scholars think that Uyghur are the original inhabitants of the re-
gion, and use this argument to sustain separatist strategies supported from
the outside. Other scholars are convinced that the Uyghur are from the Mon-
golian Plateau. In my research I maintain that the historical documents, the
archeological and the ethnographic data attest that Uyghur people come
from Mongolia and in Xinjiang they mixed with the local people.
   Our studies contradict the opinions of some political institutions, mainly
outside China, like the Uyghur American Association, based in Washington
DC. These associations push forward the idea of a structural hate between
Han and Uyghur. They want to create two separated societies closed in the
purity and authenticity of their incompatible and independent historical ori-
gins, development and cultural values. Their perspectives are not based on
any empirical evidence, but, rather, on apologetic and abstract political posi-
tions. They published several articles against my work simply based on the
empty assumption that I am “a liar”. I do not argue with these scholars be-
cause they cannot produce solid scientific arguments.
   I think that the tensions and the problems in Xinjiang will soon be solved.
I have been often asked to offer to the government and to different other in-
stitution my advices on the situation in Xinjiang. I suggested the implemen-
tation of policies based on the participation of the local people and focused
on two main objectives: on the one hand economic policy and participatory
development; on the other religious policies to support the local Muslim
people against so-called “Islamic extremists”.
   R. M. – You have played a meaningful role as advisor of many important
institutions, national and international. You have been a consultant of the
State Ethnic Affairs Commission, and other government committees (for ex-
ample Social Science Committee, Academy of Social Sciences Commission of
Ethnology) becoming a reference point for the policies on ethnic minorities.
You also collaborated with the Ministry of Education. I recall your role as di-
rector of the 985 Project to Promote the Development of the Chinese higher
education system. You also worked for the Chinese ethnological and anthro-
pological associations, as vice president of the China Union of Anthropologi-
cal and Ethnological Studies and as president of the Chinese Ethnological
Association.

                                            2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
314                                                ROBERTO MALIGHETTI,YANG SHENGMIN


   From these perspectives you greatly promoted the development of Chi-
nese anthropology. Your work, including your roles as editor and publisher,
have been recognized nationally and internationally, through diverse awards
(Ministry of Education; Turkic Uighur Youth; National Commission for out-
standing research achievement award, State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the
Central Political Bureau of the Central Committee). Your voice is very au-
thoritative and very influential.
   Y. S. – Generally most of the governments of the world do not listen to an-
thropologists, even if their opinions are right. If they had listened to them,
there would not have been the war in Iraq, in Afghanistan or in Syria nor, as a
matter of fact, dangerous events like the Three Mile Island accident. In China
I have been lucky. Like many other scholars, I have had the opportunity to
collaborate with the government, also at a very high level. One important
moment was on 22 October 2004, when I was invited to speak in front of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party together with another colleague,
Prof. Hao Shiyuan (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). After our interven-
tion, the Secretary Hu Jintao made a speech in which he called the party and
the nation to focus on the study of ethno-anthropological theories. It was
the first time that the most important national leader emphasized the rele-
vance of ethnology. This marked a very important date in the development of
Chinese ethnology and of its social importance5.
   However, I think that the role of the anthropologists is not to give advice
only to governments. They should give advice to society as a whole. The
common ideas shared inside a society can also improve governance.




5. See People’s Daily (人民日报), 23/10/2004.


2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHINESE ANTHROPOLOGY                                              315




REFERENCES

Cai Yuanpei, 蔡元培, 1926, “说民族学” Shuo Min Zu Xue 一般 Yi Ban, 478-634 页.
     English translation, “Talking About Ethnology”, in Cai Yuanpei, An Anthology
     of Cai Yuanpei, Wenxing Bookstore, Taibei, 1967: 41-43.
Engels, Friedrich, 1845, The Condition of the Working Class in England, London,
     George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Engels, Friedrich, 1884, Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Hottin-
     gen, Zurich.
Fei, Xiaotong, 费孝通, 1939, Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the
      Yangtze Valley, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Freedman, Maurice, 1963, A Chinese Phase in Social Anthropology, The British Jour-
     nal of Sociology, 14, 1: 1-19.
Hu Hongbao, 胡 鸿 保 , Wang Jianmin, 王 建 民 , Zhang Haiyang, 张 海 洋 , eds, 2006,
    Zhongguo renleixue shi 中 国 人 类 学 史 , Beijing, Zhongguo renmin daxue
    chubanshe (trad. it. Hu Hongbao, Wang Jianmin, Zhang Haiyang, Storia
    dell’antropologia cinese, Firenze, SEID 2014).
Lin, Yaohua, 林耀华， 1948, The Golden Wing: A Sociological Study of Chinese Famil-
      ism, London, Kegan Paul.
Liu, Mingxin, 刘明 新 , 2014, L’antropologia cinese tra passato, presente e futuro in
      Roberto Malighetti, Antropologie dalla Cina, Firenze, Seid Editore: 25-37.
Maine, Henry Sumner, 1875, Lectures on the Early History of Institutions, New York,
     Henry Holt and Company.
Malighetti, Roberto, a cura di, 2011, Antropologia applicata, Milano, Unicopli.
Malighetti, Roberto, ed, 2014, Antropologie dalla Cina, Firenze, Seid Editore.
Malighetti, Roberto, Wang, Mingming 2014, Dal punto di vista cinese. Dialogo sulle
     antropologie, Etnoantropologia, 3: 29-38.
Malinowski, Bronislaw 1939, Introduction, in Fei Xiatong 费 孝 通 Peasant Life in
     China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley, London, Routledge: 5-
     21.
Morgan, Lewis Hennry, 1877, Ancient Society, London, MacMillan & Company.
Skinner, George William, 1964, Marketing and social structure in rural China, Jour-
     nal of Asian Studies 24: 3-44.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨 圣 敏 , 1991, Uygur’s Ancient History, Beijing, Jinlin Education
     Press.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨 圣 敏 , ed, 1991, The Chinese nation, Beijing, Huaxia Publishing
     House.


                                            2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
316                                                    ROBERTO MALIGHETTI,YANG SHENGMIN


Yang, Shengmin ，杨圣敏, 1991, An Overview of Culture and Ecology in Xinjiang, Bei-
     jing, Central University for Nationalities Press (in Chinese) .
Yang, Shengmin, 杨圣敏 , 1992, A Contemporary History of the Society and Politics of
     Xinjiang, Beijing, China Social Sciences Press (in Chinese).
Yang, Shengmin, 杨 圣 敏 , ed, 1992, Xinjiang China, Beijing, Minzu University of
     China Press.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨圣敏 , ed, 1993, Xinjiang modern political and social history, Bei-
     jing, Chinese Social Science Press.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨圣敏 , 1993, Notes and Textual Criticism on Historical Documents
     of the Turkish and Uygur Peoples, Tianjing, Tianjing Ancient Books Press (in
     Chinese).
Yang, Shengmin, 杨圣敏 , 1998, The Culture of Dresses in the Yellow River Valley, Ji-
     nan, Shandong Renmin Press.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨圣敏 , 1998, The theory and method of Ethnology, Beijing, Central
     China University Press.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨 圣 敏 , ed, 1999, Atlas of the minorities cultural history. Vol 3,
     Guangxi, People’s Publishing Agency.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨圣敏 , ed, 2001, Anthropological theory, Beijing, China Social Sci-
     ences Press.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨 圣 敏 , ed, 2001, The Yellow River culture series, clothing volume,
     Beijing, Inner Mongolia People’s Publishing House.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨圣敏 , ed, 2003, Chinese Ethnography, Beijing, Minzu University
     Press: 12-33.
Yang, Shengmin, 杨圣敏 , 2014, La via dell’etnologia cinese. Tra passato e contem-
     poraneità, in Roberto Malighetti ed, Antropologie dalla Cina, Firenze, Seid Edi-
     tore: 39-57.
Wu, Wenzao, 吴文藻 , 1926, The nation and the state 留美学生季报，第 11 卷，第 3
     号:19-36 页.




2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317
                                                 2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317




 Roberto MALIGHETTI is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Mi-
 lano-Bicocca where he established Italy’s first chair of anthropology of China (M-
 DEA/01) and is President of the PhD Program in The Anthropology of the Contem-
 porary. His fieldwork focused on Afro-Brazilian cultures (identity, religion,
 medicine) and, more recently, turned to the study of Chinese anthropology and to
 the complexity of Chinese realities from an ethnic, religious and medical perspec-
 tive.
 roberto.malighetti@unimib.it
 Yang SHENGMIN 杨圣敏 is Professor of Anthropology and Ethnology at the School of
 Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China, Beijing; Director of the Col-
 laborative Innovation Center for Ethnic Minority Development; Director of the
 Strategic Research Project on Ethnic Issues; Vice-President of the Chinese Anthro-
 pological Association. His long term ethnographic research concentrates on the
 study of the Chinese minority groups, especially the peoples of Northwest China
 and the Uyghur of Xinjiang.
 yangshengmin@vip.sohu.com




This work is licensed under the Creative Commons © Roberto Malighetti, Yang Shengmin
The contributions of Chinese anthropology. A conversation between Roberto Malighetti and Yang Shengmin
2017 ⎸ANUAC. VOL. 6, N° 1, GIUGNO 2017: 301-317.
ISSN: 2239-625X - DOI: 10.7340/anuac2239-625X-2835
