ABSTRACT
The social sciences and humanities in China were on the path to revitalization, and the seriousness of the projected development of the social sciences and humanities would be reflected in new opportunities for academic exchanges. Following the imposition of the moratorium on long-term fieldwork in early 1981, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences began drafting a set of guidelines governing fieldwork by foreigners. Euphoria, by its very nature, cannot be sustained, and such has been the case as the initial enthusiasm for the new prospects for scholarly exchanges with China have given way to the reality of implementing those exchanges. At the heart of the difference between Chinese and Western conceptions of the role of the scholar and the function of scholarship is the relation of the scholarly enterprise to the state. Nonetheless, the political basis of the current revival of the social sciences suggests fundamental differences between Chinese and Westerners over the very meaning of "the social sciences.".
