Review essay

Abstract

This book is an ambitious attempt to trace the historical development of sociology in China in the twentieth century. He compares sociology before and after Liberation, and notes that in the late nineteenth century, China began to adopt European and American sociological thinking instead of creating its own. In the first three decades of this century, China was strongly influenced by what Wong called “missionary sociology” imported from the United States. It was characterized by an orientation toward “social problems” and surveys. It was also in this period that Marxian sociology began to emerge and compete with the “missionary sociology.” In the 1930s and ’40s, efforts had been made on the part of Chinese sociologists to “sinify” sociology; and Wong argues that before 1949, sociology in China was functionalist in its analysis and closely resembled its American counterpart.