Paper short abstract:

Fei Xiao Tong was one of China's best known and respected anthropologists. This paper considers his development and impact as a modern Chinese public intellectual through a consideration of his popular, rather than academic, writing, lecturing and occasional broadcasting.

Paper long abstract:

Fei Xiao Tong was one of China's best known and respected anthropologists. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Bronislaw Malinowski at the London School of Economics, was published as Peasant Life in China (1939) established his reputation outside China. Intellectually Fei regarded himself as a mediator between Chinese culture and Western social science. He became politically active through the China Democratic League, a party of intellectuals like himself. The foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 brought him to understand, he said, that it was only in the process of 'serving the people' that personal and social change could take place. He began an active life of public service contributing to many commissions and academic bodies. During the Hundred Flowers period of 1956 he argued for anthropology and sociology as academic disciplines and for academics to contribute through their professional expertise to the public understanding of social and economic issues. Such a stance resulted in him spending a period undergoing 'political re-education' during the Cultural Revolution. However, Fei was eventually able to renew his academic work and became an influential figure in post-Mao China. This paper considers his development and impact as a modern Chinese public intellectual through a consideration of his popular, rather than academic, writing, lecturing and occasional broadcasting.