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International Symposium on Sociology
Held at PKU to Commemorate the
Thirty-Year Reform and Opening-Up
PKU NEWS 2008--12—24
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=228574854
Peking University, Beijing, Nov. 24, 2008: International Symposium on Sociology
was held at Peking University (PKU) from November 29 to 30 to commemorate the
thirty-year reform and opening-up in China. The theme of the symposium was ―The
transformation of society and sociology in China: commemoration of the 30th
anniversary of China‘s reform and opening-up‖. Scholars from PKU, Tsinghua
University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, and Nankai
University attended the symposium. Also presented were experts from Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Macao, and other places in the world. They discussed the development of
sociology in China‘s transformation period by comprehensively sorting out and
summarizing the problems in current development of China‘s society and sociology.
In the opening ceremony, Prof. Zhang Guoyou, Vice-President of PKU, recalled the
development of PKU sociology in these thirty years and recognized its advance and
achievements. He pointed out that in the thirty years of reform and opening-up,
China‘s politics, economy, and society have all changed greatly, and China has
made important contributions to the world by her fast progress at the same time. So
the China‘s social development model has attracted the sociological academic
community‘s attention in the world, and will become an important research object for
them.
Xiao Qun, Executive Vice-Director of Office of Humanities & Social Sciences of PKU,
expressed in his speech that the two missions of this symposium were summarizing
the experience by recalling the history and giving forecasts of the social problems
China might face in the future. He also said that the characteristics of the sociology
needed comprehensively interdisciplinary study by related scholars.
Then Pref. Walder, from Stanford University, gave a lecture on "Communist
Neo-Traditionalism: Thirty Years On". Prof. Li Peilin, Director of Institute of Sociology
of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, gave a lively introduction of the four major
changes in the social policies during the reform and opening-up period in his lecture,
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