ABSTRACT
The chapter begins by placing the development of sociology and anthropology in China within an historical context. While training a new generation of scholars continues to have top priority in China, modest research efforts are nonetheless already underway. Of the senior scholars invited to attend the meeting, some understandably greeted the idea of revitalization with no great enthusiam. Others considering fieldwork in China should be aware that this constraint is not likely to change and projects where participant observation is vital are not likely to be met with favor. Isolating foreign methods and concepts from their ideological contexts will also prove difficult, although in a practical sense it may be sufficient if new techniques and methods simply appear to be Chinese. Ten teachers drawn from among participants in the 1980 summer training program are writing a basic sociology text, drawing together materials from the workshop, earlier Chinese articles, and selected translations.
