A scholar's cognitive style depends not only on his/her own knowledge accumulation and cognitive habits, but also on his/her social relationship model: who he/she contacted, who he/she had academic exchanges and collisions with, and what thoughts he/she triggered. In other words, Native China is based on the accumulation of Fei Xiaotong's long-term field research and theoretical exploration, and also on his personal social relationship model formed in the temporal and spatial structure at that time.
The wasted years in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's later period and the liberation war.
During the period of 10, from Britain's return to China in the late 1930s, to Kunming and Queequeg in Yunnan, Chicago and Boston in the United States, and then to Britain and Tsinghua, Fei Xiaotong crossed the northern and southern hemispheres of China. After fieldwork, international exchanges and historical discussions, his public space and social space were constantly changing and expanding, forming a space-time interwoven.
From specific community research to grasping the whole China society, Fei Xiaotong and Ms. Wang Tonghui jointly set the goal of understanding China society in the field investigation of Yao people in Dayaoshan. The booklet "Native China" is a collection of lectures he gave to graduate students when he returned to Tsinghua campus from The National SouthWest Associated University. In order to teach this course, he first used American textbooks as reference books. Later, he felt that American textbooks could not express his wishes, so he tried to use his past investigation materials in Yaoshan, Jiangcun and Yunnan villages. In the late period of the Anti-Japanese War, he dabbled in economic issues and published economic comments in newspapers and periodicals. 1947 he decided to talk about rural social problems from the perspective of social structure. He wrote that he should "start a new stove, even temporarily put aside economic problems and focus on the social structure itself."
In the postscript of Native China, he said that this was the second stage of his work, and the first stage was the field investigation from Yaoshan. The second stage began with the writing and research of the birth system around 1946. The birth system is the first achievement at this stage, and the native China is the second. In the middle of these two stages, that is, 1943, he visited the University of Chicago, and changed Lucun farmland, Yicun handicraft industry, Yucun agriculture and industry into English, translated into EarthboundChina, and changed Kunchang laborers into ChinaEnterstheMachineAge. He also visited Harvard University and other institutions.
After the mid-1940s, Fei Xiaotong's academic research began to shift from field work to theoretical construction, and from focusing on academic research to paying equal attention to academic research and current affairs commentary writing. Work, politics and many other reasons forced him to stop fieldwork, turn to theoretical construction and carry out more teaching work. Because he taught at the National Southwest Associated University and Yunnan University at the same time, and the Japanese bombed Kunming and were forced to go to the countryside, he paid more attention to teaching and writing during the five years from 1940 to the beginning of 1945 (one year was an exchange in the United States). 1993 In the article "Individuals, Groups and Society", he said: "In the later period of Queequeg, because I was a faculty member of Yunnan University and General Assembly, and the political situation was tense at that time, it was not convenient for me to directly participate in field investigation, so I had more time to give lectures and write. I can also mention that the soaring inflation at that time made my real income drop continuously, and I became the father of a child at 1940. We live in a rented house in Chenggong rural area, and there is a pigsty under the building. Life is hard. So, I have to find another income besides my regular salary. As a scholar, the living expenses I can find can only depend on my writing for the manuscript fee. I became a famous prolific writer at that time. My articles are often published in major newspapers and periodicals in the rear area. I write almost every day, and now I sell cash. The manuscript fee will account for half of my income. " Fei Xiaotong began to write since he was a teenager, and the environment in the 1940s further developed his writing habits and formed his own unique writing style.