ABSTRACT
The idea of social work was fi rst introduced into China by western Christian missionaries in the late nineteenth century, and in the 1910s a few elite Chinese universities started offering courses on social work. Over the next few decades, social work experienced a lukewarm growth, before being brought to an abrupt end when the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was established in 1949. It was not until the late 1980s that the Chinese government again approved the education and practices of social work. The present chapter will fi rst review the history of Chinese social work since its inception, followed by a discussion of the welfare system in China. We then attempt to explain the systematic integration of social work into the existing Chinese welfare structure and its subsequent infl uence upon social work development in China. We conclude by pointing out the potential contribution of this country profi le to a broad understanding of transnational social work as an emerging professional fi eld committed to achieving greater social justice.
