The China in Comparative Perspective Network (CCPN) has developed out of a early 80-year-long history of anthropological study of China at LSE. One of the most distinguished of LSE Chinese alumni, LSE Honorary Fellow, Professor Fei Xiaotong| (Fei Hsiao-t'ung 1910-2005), obtained his PhD from the Department of Anthropology. His doctoral thesis, entitled Kaihsienkung: Economic Life in a Chinese Village, was supervised by Professor Bronislaw Malinowski| and Sir Raymond Firth|. Fei was the first research student at the Department of Anthropology to conduct a study of China. He was also the only Chinese to be awarded the Huxley Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI 1981).
From 1921 to 2007 there have been a total of 23 research theses (including Masters' before 1970) on China and Taiwan in the Department. Anthropology ranks second at LSE (after International relations, see Titles of research students' dissertations since 1921|) in terms of the number of research student thesis completions. The chart below shows that there were two waves of China related studies: in the 1960s, and from 2000 onwards. Professor Maurice Freedman|'s Malinowski Memorial Lecture| in 1962, 'A Chinese Phase in Social Anthropology', suggested that the time had come for sino-anthropologists' to be asking what the study of China might contribute conceptually to more general studies of culture, political economy, politics, or society. Unfortunately the Cultural Revolution intervened four years later, and it became impossible to study Chinese society itself for nearly two decades.
In 2003 Professor Yunxiang Yan| gave the Malinowski memorial lecture on 'Individualism and the Transformation of Bridewealth in Rural China', Yan being the only Chinese to receive this honour. At a related event, Yan and his PhD supervisor Professor James Watson|, the John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Professor of Chinese Society at Harvard University, and Dr Christopher Hughes from LSE, held a panel discussion 'Is Globalization Good for China', chaired by Professor Charles Stafford.
The School's News & Views| describe these two events as 'underlining the School's interest and commitment to furthering social science research and engagement in China and Chinese affairs', and 'just an example of current LSE and China academic activity. In terms of student recruitment, the School has a very strong reputation and profile in China. By March this year, LSE had received over 3,500 applications from China, more than a 150 per cent increase on the 2002 figure.
The average increase for all UK universities in the same time period was around 50 per cent.' The School's plans on China 'include the teaching of short-courses in China and a range of research initiatives to ensure that the School retains an active part in the development of the social sciences in China.'
In addition in the Department of Anthropology there are a number of MPhil and PhD current studies on China (see MPhil/PhD Anthropology students [current]| ). Apart from the Malinowski memorial lectures, the occasional public lecture, e.g. Logic and emotion in Chinese economic life| and occasional Anthropology of East and Inner Asia Seminar largely involves China in comparative perspective.
The MSc China in Comparative Perspective| was established by Professor Stephan Feuchtwang in 2006. This is a programme exploiting the School's multidisciplinary expertise to very good effect, asking students to study China's modern economic history, politics, international relations, society and culture in a comparative framework; using India, that other important and fast-growing economy, as well as the history of China itself, and European modernising projects, as comparators. It received the first class of 17 MSc students in 2006.
Professor Feuchtwang and the first class of students of the MSc China In comparative perspective (2006-07)
It covers courses run by the Departments of Anthropology, Government, Economic History, Social Policy, International Relations, History of International Relations, Sociology, Law, European Institute and so on. In supporting and promoting the MSc Programme on China in comparative Perspective the China in Comparative Perspective Network (CCPN)| and the Journal of China in Comparative Perspective| (JCCP) were launched in 2008.
Along with Professor Stephan Feuchtwang's retirement in 2011 many changes occurred on CCPN:
(1) CCPN Management Committee| has been set up: Professor Stephan Feuchtwang was the first chair of the CCPN MC, Dr Kent Deng became CCPN Director, with Dr Xiangqun Chang as the Co-Director. CCPN website moved to Department of Economic History where Kent is based.
(2) the School's 5 year MSc China in Comparative Perspective |became a permanent programme, stays in the Department of Anthropology, with Dr Hans Steinmuller as the Programme Convenor.
(3) all the research projects and networks formed the 'CCPN Research'|, which will be moved to Asia research centre, with Xiangqun as the research Manager.
(4) Professor Danny Quah |has been elected a new chair of CCPN management Committee.
On the 6th March, 2012 LSE Council approved the recommendation that Justin Yifu Lin| be offered an Honorary Doctorate of the School. It was nominated by Dr Kent Deng, CCPN Director, with the support of Professor Janet Hunter, Head of the Department of Economic History; and Professor Danny Quah of the Department of Economics, and Chair of CCPN Management Committee. Professor Dr Justin Yifu Lin is Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank, the Bank's first ever chief economist from a developing country. He was Founding Director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, Professor of Economics at Peking University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. See more|…
Note 1: If you go to the page 'Titles of research students' dissertations since 1921|' you will find that the dissertations' titles related to China and Taiwan in Anthropology department is on the 2nd place of the total at LSE, which might explain in part why the CCPN started from here. To see more please click About us|, Anthropology|.
Note 2: The Department of International Relations holds the first place of the China related 'Titles of research students' dissertations since 1921 which might be the reason why there was the China's 'Golden ages' at the LSE| . If you add International relations and International history's dissertations' titles related to China together it amounts to 35% of the total. This might explain why there is an interdisciplinary institute IDEAS| at LSE.
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Click here for LSE and China at the ARC website.
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Click here for LSE China Experts.
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Click herefor LSE China related Organisations and Societies.
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Click here to Join the CCPN
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Click here to see the Endorsements
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Click here to return to the home page: lse.ac.uk/ccpn