La obra de Fei Xiaotong como paradigma de la colonialidad en la antropología china

Abstract

Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005) es considerado como el pionero de la antropología y sociología en China. Esto se debe a que su obra es de las más tempranas y relevantes en la antropología aplicada y a que posteriormente, es encargado por el Comité Central del Partido Comunista de la reconstrucción de la sociología en China. Mediante el estudio de su obra y su experiencia vital, se pueden comprender las transformaciones que sufre China durante el siglo XX, así como la estrecha relación entre la producción del conocimiento y el poder, el modo en que se acciona la colonialidad del saber/poder/ser en el devenir político de la RPCh. Este estudio de caso, no representa simplemente un estudio de las articulaciones en China, sino que permite ilustrar para teorizar a partir del caso acerca de los modelos o formas de colonialidad y de colonialismo interno, y su impacto en la ciencia contemporánea desde el siglo XX. El objetivo que tiene Fei durante toda su vida es elaborar planes para solucionar o mejorar aspectos de la sociedad que se basen en los resultados que obtenga mediante la aplicación del conocimiento antropológico y sociológico. Pero con la fundación de la República Popular China, su carrera académica y sus aspiraciones se ven truncadas ya que su obra es gradualmente censurada al ser tachado como derechista por el Partido Comunista. Durante la Revolución Cultural es reeducado forzosamente en la doctrina maoísta y humillado públicamente hasta el punto de que llega a repudiar su obra anterior. Con la muerte de Mao, comienza lo que él mismo denomina como su segunda vida académica, marcada inevitablemente por el periodo de censura y por tanto, desarrollando una sociología orientada al interés nacional.

Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005) is regarded as the pioneer of anthropology and sociology in China. This is due to the fact that his work is one of the earliest and most relevant in applied anthropology and that later, he was commissioned by the Central Committee of the Communist Party to reconstruct sociology in China. By studying his work and his life experience, one can understand the transformations that China undergoes during the twentieth century as well as the close relationship between the production of knowledge and power, the way in which the coloniality of knowledge/power/being is activated in the political development of the PRC. This study does not simply represent a study of the articulations in China, but allows us to illustrate to theorize from the case about the models or forms of coloniality and internal colonialism, and their impact on contemporary science since the twentieth century. The goal that Fei has throughout his life is to develop plans to solve or improve aspects of society that are based on the results he obtains through the application of anthropological and sociological knowledge. But with the founding of the People's Republic of China, his academic career and aspirations are cut short because his work is gradually censored by being branded as right-wing by the Chinese Communist Party. During the Cultural Revolution he was forcibly re-educated in the Maoist doctrine and publicly humiliated to the point of repudiating his previous work. When Mao died, he started what he himself calls his second academic life, that is inevitably marked by the period of censorship and therefore, he developed a sociology oriented to the national interest.