At 19:30 - 22:00 of May 27th, 2016, Dr. Yu Li from Langara College in Vancouver of Canada, at the invitation of SCU’s School of History and Culture, delivered an academic lecture titled “Problems and Trends of Current Social History Studies” in Classroom 1-102 of the Graduate School at SCU Wangjiang Campus. This lecture was presided by Prof. Liu Shilong of the School of History and Culture.

Doctor. Yu Li, after recalling the phases (from John King Fairbank to Paul A Cohen, and to the present) and mode transformations (“impact-response”, “traditional-modern” and “imperialism” modes) of overseas studies of Chinese history, put the focus of his speech on the recent development of social history study in North America. Firstly, he analyzed and concluded that one of the major differences between social history and political history is that, the research object of social history has been shifted down to the public. Secondly, he believed that researchers of social history borrowed mostly the theories and methods of sociology, anthropology and some other disciplines, but their research results can challenge the theories of the relevant existing disciplines. Thirdly, he pointed out that the analysis unit used in social history study is relatively small and can be incorporated into the scope of regional history. Taking the East India Company as an instance, we might as well concentrate on things occurred on one certain day to go deeper in study. Fourthly, as for topic selection for the study of social history, we might as well pay attention to the topics closely linked with people’s life, such as joke, rumor, leisure time and consumption, etc. Fifthly, he pointed out that there are increasingly more sources of materials for social history study, ranging from local chronicles, family trees and oral historical materials to folktale, short stories, poems and images, among others.

In addition, Dr. Yu Li also talked about the methods used in the study of social history, in collecting and sorting materials, and in writing training.

Dr. Yu Li’s lecture aroused the interest of students present. With respect to the questions raised by students, like whether historiography has its own theory, whether historiography study should adhere to the principle of “pursuing truth”, how to pursue the truth, and how to treat the rationality of “subjective history”, he responded one by one; the students felt that they were inspired and benefited a lot.