FEI XIAOTONG

born Nov. 2, 1910, Wu-chiang district, Kiangsu province, China Wade-Giles romanization Fei Hsiao-t'ung one of the foremost Chinese social anthropologists, noted for his studies of village life in China. Fei was graduated in 1933 from Yen-ch'ing University in Peking and did graduate work at Ch'ing-hua University (also in Peking) and the London School of Economics of the University of London. He became professor of anthropology at Ch'ing-hua in 1945 and deputy dean there in 1949. Fei was a victim of the antirightist campaign in 1957, but he resurfaced in 1980, when he was rehabilitated. He was made a professor and the director of the Institute of Sociology of Peking University and chairman of the Chinese Democratic League. Among Fei's books originally written in English are Peasant Life in China (1939), China's Gentry (1953), Chinese Village Close-up (1983), and Small Towns in China (1986).