In the 1940s, a series of studies about the urban-rural economic transformations were carried out by the Yenching-Yunnan Station for Sociological Research, which was led by Fei Xiaotong. With its rich academic outputs, this period is considered a peak of Chinese sociology and anthropology. In fact, the works from this research station have established a form of Chinese economic anthropology with unique features. They focus on the conjunction between the village and theglobal market, through analyzing the modern transformation of rural society from three aspects: the economic practice, the social organization, and the social psychological status. With the goal that not only protecting society, but also helping society to adapt to the global market, Fei and his colleagues in the station differfrom the economic formalism approach as B. Malinowski challenged nor the economic substance approach as Malinowski employed. Their works have a comparative framework which rooted in R. H. Tawney. Fei had brought Tawney’s idea into their academic discussion in the research station when sharing his thoughts about Chinese village modernization with the members.
The Analysis of the Economic-Anthropological Studies by the Yenching School during the “Kuige” period[J]. Sociological Review of China, 2019, 7(4): 36-50