China Vitae

Biography

Fei Xiaotong, male, Han nationality, is a native of Wujiang County, Jiangsu Province. He was born in 1910 and studied at Yanjing and Qinghua Universities.

Fei is an academic who has written on topics including Chinese peasant life, countryside societies, rural economies, countryside construction and ethnic minorities. After studying at Yanjing and Qinhua Universities in the early 1930s, Fei traveled to England where he studied with Bronislaw Malinowski and wrote the book "Peasant Life in China." This book brought him a doctorate from London University, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. He returned to China in 1939 and became a professor at several universities.

In the 1950s, Fei helped found the Central Institute for Ethnic Minorities and became a professor researching and teaching about ethnic minorities. In 1957, Fei was suspended from his academic activities after being stigmatized as a "rightist." For the next 20 years, he translated works by foreign authors.

Since 1978, Fei has written proposals on the development of the Yellow River Delta and Shanghai economic revitalization. He has also won many international honors. In 1987, he became an honorary fellow at the Royal Anthropological Institute in Great Britain. In 1980, he won the Malinowski Award for applied anthropology. In 1981, he was awarded the Thomas H. Huxley Memorial Medal for anthropology.