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Recent Developments in Chinese Social Science, 1977–79

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

George Braybrooke
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Extract

In the dozen years or more since the Cultural Revolution Chinese social scientists have been through a period of relative inactivity. This is now said to have been the direct result of the interference of the “gang of four.” Since the disappearance of the “gang of four” in October 1976, social science has undergone a revival and social scientists are once again active.

Type
Report from China
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 79 , September 1979 , pp. 593 - 607
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1979

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References

1. There are countless newspaper articles to this effect, see for example Li Shu, “The ‘gang of four’ and social science,” and Tu-chien, Weng, “Grasp back the losses caus-ed by the ‘gang of four’,” both in Kuangming Daily, 11 03 1978Google Scholar.

2. The following gives an indication of the scope of social science as understood in China:

“In 1978 there were 18 research institutes under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences covering philosophy, classical history, modern history, world history, economic theory, industrial economics, agricultural economics, world economics, finance and trade, law, Chinese literature, foreign literature, ethnology, linguistics, religion, journalism, archaeology, and information” (Shih, Mu, Peking Review, No. 19, 1978)Google Scholar. Later, an Institute of Research into Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought and an Institute of Sociological Research were added (Jen-nan jih-pao (People's Daily), 21 March and 2 04 1979)Google Scholar.

Chairman Hua Kuo-feng, in his Report on the Work of the Government delivered to the First Session of the Fifth National People's Congress, 26 February 1978 [English version in “Documents of the First Session of the Fifth National People's Congress” (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1978, p. 71)Google Scholar], referred to the following as being part of social science: philosophy, history, economics, law, literary theory, ethnology, linguistics, religion, education, military science, and politics.

The Social Science Front, the social science journal with the broadest scope, has covered the following areas: philosophy, economics, law, history, literature, language, military science, archaeology, rural sociology, industrial sociology, psychology, calligraphy, fine arts, and librarianship.

3. See for example “On Practice.”

4. For western social scientists' views of Chinese social science at this time see Freedman, , “Sociology in China: a brief survey,” The China Quarterly (CQ), No. 10 (1962)Google Scholar, and Sanchez, A. R. and Wong, S. L., “On ‘An interview with Chinese anthropologists’,” CQ, No. 60 (1974)Google Scholar.

5. For the views of some Chinese social scientists at that time see Cooper, G., “An interview with Chinese anthropologists,” Current Anthropology, No. 4 (1973)Google Scholar.

6. For an example of the institute's work see the three articles on futurology by one of its staff, Heng-yen, Shen (Kuang-ming Daily, 21, 22 and 23 07 1978)Google Scholar. The institute's Chinese name is ch'ing-pao yen-chiu so. Pao translated this into English for me as “the Institute of Scientific Information,” but in Peking Review, No. 19 (1978), it is simply “the Institute of Information.”Google Scholar

7. Academic and research units concerned with science and technology, culture and education all have plans to develop their work and contribute to the achievement of the “four modernizations.” Individual plans are for three and eight years. The master plan covers 23 years. See Hua Kuo-feng's speech at the National Science Conference. He said: “The first eight years are the key to accomplishing the four modernizations in 23 years, that is by the year 2000. This is true also for raising the scientific and cultural level of the entire Chinese nation. We should work out plans for the next three and the next eight years, and an outline for 23 years” (People's Daily, 26 March 1978; Peking Review, No. 13, 1978)Google Scholar. See the second part of this report for social science plans.

8. See the economics reading list in fn. 24 as an example of this deficiency. See People's Daily, 24 November 1977 and 5 April 1978 for critiques of textbooks on socialist economics published before 1977.

9. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Chinese name is chung-kuo she-hui k'e-hsueh yuan. The change of name took effect from 7 May 1977 (Kuang-mting Daily, 22 September 1977). This seems to have been timed to precede a report on the work of the Academy of Sciences given to the Central Committee of the CCP on 30 May 1977, after which Chairman Hua gave “important instructions” on scientific work, which may have involved the social sciences (see Yi's, Fang speech at the Fourth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Kuang-ming Daily, 31 12 1977)Google Scholar. In the interviews, in the first part of this report, the cadres told me the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences “became independent in September,” when it moved its offices to No. 5 ch'ien kuo men wai ta chieh, tung ch'eng ch'u, Peking (two miles to the east of Tien An Men Square).

10. Kuo-feng, Hua, “Report on the work of the government,” delivered to the First Session of the Fifth National People's Congress, 26 02 1978Google Scholar. English version in Documents of the First Session of the Fifth National People's Congress (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1978), p. 71Google Scholar.

11. Kuang-ming Daily and People's Daily, 11 March 1978. For an English-language report on the conference see Shih, Mu, “Research work in philosophy and social sciences unshackled,” Peking Review, No. 19, 1978Google Scholar.

12. People's Daily, 27 March 1978.

13. Ibid. 24 May 1978.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid., 15 July 1978.

17. Kuang-ming Daily, 7 April 1979.

18. Kuang-ming Daily, 4 November 1978.

19. People's Daily, 21 March 1979.

20. Kutmg-ming Daily, 22 March 1979.

21. Ibid. 30 March 1979.

22. Ibid. 22 September 1977; and People's Daily, 18 December 1977.

23. People's Daily, 18 May 1978.

24. Reading lists on which the first sections of the examinations in economics and world economics were to be based were published in the press (all are in Chinese, translated titles are given here). See People's Daily, 18 March 1978.

Economics: “Capital” and “Critique of the Gotha Programme,” K. Marx; “Anti-Duhring” and “On Authority,” F. Engels; “Imperialism is the Highest Stage of Capitalism” and “The State and Revolution,” V. I. Lenin; “Questions on the Socialist Economy of the Soviet Union,” J. Stalin; “The Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,” Vols. 1–5; “Political Economy (Capitalism Section),” Hu Kuang-yun and Su Hsing; “Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism,” Ai Ssu-chi (ed.); “Chinese History Papers,” Kuo Mo-jo (ed.), Vol. 4; “Modern History of China,” , Fan Wen-Ian (ed.), Vol. 1Google Scholar.

World Economics: “Capital,” K. Marx; “Imperialism is the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” V. I. Lenin; “Questions on the Socialist Economy of the Soviet Union,” J. Stalin; “The Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,” Vols. 1–5; “Chairman Mao's Theory of the Differentiation of the Three Worlds is a Great Contribution to Marxism-Leninism,” the People's Daily editorial group; “…and other world economics, international trade, and international finance publications.”

25. Kuang-ming Daily, 14 October 1978.