The sociological study of China has a complex history. It could be argued that Confucian thought embodied a native tradition of sociological thinking about such things as the family, bureaucracy, and deviant behavior. However, modern Chinese sociology initially had foreign origins and inspiration. The appearance of the field in China might be dated from the translation of parts of Herbert Spencer's The Study of Sociology into Chinese in 1897. The earliest sociology courses and departments in China were established in private, missionary colleges, and Western sociologists such as D. H. Kulp, J. S. Burgess, and Sidney Gamble played central roles in initiating sociology courses and research programs within China (see Wong 1979).

The Chinese Sociological Association was established in 1930, and in the following two decades a process of Sinification progressed. Chinese sociologists, trained both at home and in the West, emerged. Sociology courses and departments began to proliferate...