Institute of Ethnic Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Renamed as Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
    In Oct. 2002, Institute of Ethnic Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was officially renamed as Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, CASS.
    Institute of Ethnic Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was the first scientific research Institution of People’s Republic of China engaged in ethnic studies. The following are its development history in the past 40 years.
    In Dec. 1956, Institute of ethnolinguistics studies was founded on ethnolinguistics group and nationwide ethnolinguistics expedition of Institute of linguistics studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences;
    In 1958, Institute of Ethnic Studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences was founded on Research Department of Central Ethnic College;
    In 1962, Institute of Ethnic Studies and Institute of Ethnolingustics Studies were merged as Institute of Ethnic Studies, Chinese Academy of Sciences;
    In 1977, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was founded and Institute of Ethnic Studies became one of its academic organizations.
    After Institute of Ethnic Studies was renamed as Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, it will adjust its departments so as to adapt itself to courses’ construction and development.
    Chinese Scholars Researched Over 50 Distinct Minority Languages
    Since Chinese scholars began the project on “Discovery of Minority Languages”in 1992, great achievements have been made during the past ten years. In 2002, Mr. Sun Hongkai, deputy director of the China Center for Ethnic Minority Languages of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. announced: They have researched 50 distinct minority languages and over ten works have been published including “Research on Jiongnai Language”.
    During the past ten years, scholars have made spot investigation into minority area without convenient traffic and got many original materials. With the development of modernization, media communication methods are now more developed. Most of these languages are not so often spoken and some of them will probably disappear soon. Therefore, the investigation into these newly discovered languages and the relevant research has preserved some threatened with extinction minority languages.
    15 Million Words Are Enough to Tell People Tibet’s history
    “General History of Tibet”, a special funds project with complete records of Tibet’s history, was started in the Autumn of 2002. The project is undertaken and finished by China research center for tibetology and Tibet history researchers of Tibet Autonomous Region and other areas. “General History of Tibet” will mainly talks about the local politics history in Tibet and the relations between Tibet and the Central governments of different dynasties in China. It is also about Tibet’s economy, military affairs, religions, culture, art and social customs, etc. It is divided into 10 volumes and there are 8 million words in the book in total. Besides, the editors will also compile Tibet historic selected books and relevant translations and reference books. It is estimated that there will be 15 million words in all these books in total. The whole project will take the experts 5 to 7 years.
    How Should Miao Ethnic Group Adjust Itself to the Globalization in the 21st Century?
    Over 40 experts from all over China participated in the seminar on  “Miao”s Culture Adjustments to the Globalization in the 21st Century’ in Beijing. The seminar mainly made research on how ethnic Miao and other minorities should adjust themselves to face the impact and influence from the globalization after China entered WTO and how Miao’s Culture copes with the globalization, etc.
    Value Judgement On the Rise and Decline and Interaction of China’s Ethnic and Regional Cultural Heritage
    Nearly 70 experts from over 20 provinces and municipalities of China participated in “Value Judgement Conference on the rise and decline and interaction of China’s Ethnic and Regional Cultural Heritage”held by Beijing Academy of Social Sciences. The experts made a discussion on “Diversification of Chinese Civilization Origin”, “the rise and decline reason and the possibility of the renaissance of ethnic cultures and regional cultures”, “Influence of the interaction of ethnic cultures and regional cultures on its development”, “value judgement of China’s ethnic and regional culture reserves under the background of the world civilization” and “China”s ethnic and regional cultural resource protection and development strategy”, etc.
    Research on Particular Woman Mosque in China
    “History of Chinese Woman Mosque”, written by Shuijing and Maria Yashac (a British person), was published by Sanlian Bookshop Press in 2002. The book makes comprehensive academic research on Muslim women and Chinese particular woman Mosque, talks about gender politics, woman rights, modernization construction and its traditional identity and Islamism’s influence on society, etc.
    Discovering “Mongolian’s indenture by which they sold themselves”
    From 1988 to 1995, the archaeologists of China Tunhuang Research Institute made another archaeological investigation into Mogao Caves North area and discovered some literature written in Western Xia language, Syriac, Mongolian and Pagpa Language, which were not found in the former Tunhuang Scripture Cave. Among the literature, 51 were written in Mongolian. In Aug. 2002, relevant experts said that one of these Mongolian writings was “mongolian’s indenture by which they sold themselves” after textual research. It was unearthed from Mogao Caves B127 Grotto written on abutilon paper, of which the fibers were not so well proportioned and 7 lines of words written in ink could be seen. We can see from it the person who sold himself was from a very poor family, the buyer, however, was a noble man and the eyewitness was a placeman named Daluhuachi. The three persons were all Mongolians. According to relevant experts, this indenture belongs to Mongolian Empire Period.
    Relic of Neolithic Architectures Found in Tibet for the First Time
    In the archaeological investigation into Baoga Relics in Qiongjie County of Tibet, the Institute of Archaeology Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences discovered for the first time the relic of Neolithic stonewalling constructions and graves. Seen from the unearthed condition, this relic was almost a square with width and length each 6 meters. The South, West and North wall and the southern part of the East Wall were made up of blocks, the north wall was of monolayer and the others were all of multilayer. The highest reserved was up to 80 cm and the walls were about 30-70cm thick. On the construction ground was sedentary soil. Different types of ash holes and pillar holes were scattered everywhere. In the east of the architecture, the experts found a kitchen range made up of three column blocks and flagstones. It shows again that Tibetans’ ancestors once lived in the hinterland of today’s Tibet (middle reaches of the Brahmaputra) in late Neolithic Age and enjoyed high material civilization.
    China’s Ethnic Multi-media Information System
    “China’s Ethnic Multi-media Information System” is an important project of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This system is built to develop a set of China’s Ethnic multi-media information system software based on GIS platform. It uses VB for client program, pays visits to SQL SERVER2000 database and starts GIS for development of MapInfo’s software system on back-ground. This system has already realized many functions such as map display, information checking, statistics and database maintenance and so on. In the meantime, the information of its database on ethnic history, ancient writings, customs, cultural relics, films and televisions and ethnic languages is issued online.
    “Chinese-Mongolian Dictionary” to be Compiled
    Compiling Ceremony for “Chinese-Mongolian Dictionary”, one of our national key books, is held in Inner Mongol University. It is the most perfect, systemic and exhaustive Mongolian dictionary. About 300,000 words will be explained in it and there will be about 5 million words in total in the dictionary. Over 100 experts and scholars on Mongolian and Chinese will participate in the dictionary compilation and the dictionary will be officially published in 2005.
    A Hundred Years’ History of Muslem in China
    Ningxia People’s Press published “A Hundred Years’ History of Chinese Muslem”, a book written by Ding Hong and Zhang Guojie. This book is about the history of Chinese Muslem in the 20th Century and discusses about the development of Chinese Muslem society in different periods.
    A large group of ethnic Yao residence buildings with a history of over 300 years
    A large group of ethnic Yao residence buildings with a history of over 300 years was found in ethnic Yao Autonomous County in Jianghua of Hunan Province. These buildings, made up 9 wells, 18 halls and 108 rooms, cover an area of over 80 mu and is of half timber construction. The houses are in order and richly ornamented. Outside the couryard, we can see ancient trees reaching the sky, which makes the environment look so sequestered. These buildings’ construction took nine generations of a Mr. He’s big family over 100 years.
    Genealogices in the 20th Century
    In Yunnan Province, where there live many ethnic minorities, a publishing house is making a new experiment on anthropology writing: They’ll choose a family from each of the 56 ethnic groups in China as their investigation object and then write 56 books with 3 million-word books named “Chinese Genealogies in the 20th Century”. Yunnan Publishing house, which will publish the book, said: “Families’ records will always tell the world the history of a certain period”. The publisher also believe that these books will be “a new experiment on anthropology writing” because the original materials will show readers true history of the families and malpractice in some other anthropology writings such as turning a deaf ear or eye to external reality will not be found in the books.
    First Set of “Ethnic She Research Books” were Published
    Ethnic She is an ancient ethnic group in China. Our research on Ethnic She began a hundred years ago. Recently, a set of “She Research Books” published in Fujian Province, an inhabitation region of Ethnic She, summarizes the hundred years’ research on Ethnic She.”
    This set of books are made up of 6 books including “Comparison Research on Ethnic She, Ethnic Yao and Miao”, “Relationship Between Ethnic She and Hakka”, “Language”, “Ethnic She Culture”, “Ethnic She Music Culture” and “Customs and Practices of She “. Based on the achievements made by former researchers, these books focus on the research on the representative things of Ethnic She Culture and important topics that can enlighten readers. After reading the books, readers will know better about the history, the panorama and essence of the culture of Ethnic She. The perfect combination of technicality and readability of these books shows the high contemporary research level of Ethnic She.