Shun-Sheng Ling And Modern Chinese Ethnology

Shun-Sheng Ling was one of pathfinders both in modern anthropology and ethnology. With systematic theory training in the West and rich practice of native anthropology fieldwork, he scored achievements in academic research and the subject construction. Ling devoted his life to the studies of Chinese Minorities and Circum-pacific Culture. For another thing, he was active in constructing theory, directing research and developing individuals. Particularly during the period of managing the institute of Ethnology Academic Sinica, he had important implications for the construction and transformation of contemporary ethnology.Based on the background of the history and discipline development, the paper will analysis his academic career in four chapters:Origin of academic thought. The first chapter traces back his early study path from pedagogy to ethnology, seeks the source of his academic thoughts and discusses the feature of his ethnic studies and theory.Pioneers of Chinese ethnology. It’s a summary of Ling’s pioneering work that he started the local fieldwork and built the research theory.The ethnologist who throw himself into the study of border strategy. Through the investigation of Ling’s practice in frontier education and thoughts of border strategy construction, this part reveals his academic significance and characteristic.Reconstruction of Taiwan s contemporary ethnology. The last chapter focuses on his contributions to ethnology academic institute of Taiwan and his research on circum-pacific culture.It aims to illustrate the links between Ling and modern ethnology in Taiwan on the discuss of his discipline construction and academic research.