Global search launched for memories of Suzhou's Jiangcun

Kaixiangong village in Wujiang district, Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province, known worldwide by its literary name, Jiangcun, is seeking memories of the landmark book that put the village on the global academic map.

In the summer of 1936, 26-year-old scholar Fei Xiaotong (Hsiao-Tung Fei) lived with local farming families and documented farming, silkworm breeding and silk reeling, trade and everyday village life.

His research provided the basis for his doctoral dissertation at the London School of Economics in 1938 and was published in Britain in 1939 as Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley. His mentor, renowned anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, hailed it as a landmark in anthropological fieldwork and theory.

The book has since been translated into numerous languages, taught at universities around the world and held in libraries across continents. Fei returned to Jiangcun 26 times between 1936 and 2002, documenting the village's transformation over nearly seven decades.