Social Engineering and the Social Sciences in China, 1919–1949

In this book Yung-chen Chiang tells the story of the origins, hopes, visions and achievements of the social sciences movement in China during the first half of the twentieth century. He focuses on the efforts of social scientists at three institutions - the Yanjing Sociology Department, Nankai Institute of Economics, and Chen Hansheng’s Marxist agrarian research enterprise - to relate their disciplines to the needs of Chinese society. As all three groups received funding from the Rockerfeller Foundation, their stories offer a unique window onto Sino-American interactions, revealing how the social sciences became a lingua franca of the cultural frontier. Drawing on an impressive variety of archival materials used here for the first time, this study corrects and enriches current scholarship, presenting both a more detailed and panoramic view. Chiang’s analysis engages the complex and broader issues of the transfer, indigenization, and international patronage of social science disciplines.