Research On Chinese Association Of Ethnology(1934—1947)

In modern times, there are more and more scholars committed themselves in the study of frontier ethnic problems in China. The contents of ethnology research are more richly. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a national academic research community on ethnology. After the active preparation by some famous scholars, such as Xu Yitang, Huang Wenshan, Ling Chunsheng, Yang Chengzhi etc, Central Association of Ethnology was formally set up in Nan Jing central university, December in 1934, which contained many researchers in various fields like ethnology, anthropology, sociology. The members probed deeply and theoretically into ethnology from contents and methods, conducted numerous investigations and made quite a number of important achievements, which greatly promoted Chinese ethnology.This thesis focuses on Chinese Association of Ethnology, sorts out its developing process from 1934 to 1949, analyses the academic research experience and achievements of its main members. Ultimately this paper outlined basic thread of Chinese Ethnology in modern China.There are five parts in this paper. The introduction part introduced the meaning of this topic, research methods, and main contents. The first chapter discussed background of setting up and general situation about Chinese Association of Ethnology. It was in this background that China’s frontier crises were increasingly severe, more and more western ethnology knowledge spread into China and frontier research had been academic tide. The association had perfect organization, issued its regulation, and applied a system of supervision and council. The second chapter discussed the initial development of Chinese Association of Ethnology from 1934 to 1937. This part mainly discussed the last two academic annual meeting. Members made some exploration on theoretic bases and on-the-spot investigation. The third chapter discussed the rapidly development during the war of anti-Japan, which is the golden time of ethnology association. All sorts of field investigations have been thriving developed. The quality and quantity on ethnology research results have been greatly enhanced. In 1938, the Association founded profession journal—The Southwest Frontier. There were 18 journals and many important research results, which had been issued. The froth chapter discussed the dilemma and end of Chinese ethnologic association after the war. At the beginning of this part, author discussed the third academic annual meeting in 1948, members were scattered during domestic political upheaval in 1949. After that, Chinese Association of Ethnology automatically dissolved.