70年以來,費孝通就中國社會陸續提出了"差序格局"理論"多元一體"理論"文化自覺"理論。改革開放四十年以來,中國社會發生了翻天覆地的變化,這三種主要理論全都顯得有些過時了,都需要向前推進,以便適合新時代發展的需要。經濟社會的全面大轉型要求人類學民族學研究者總結中國經驗、講出中國理論。然而,面對理論創新的不足,中國人類學民族學界亟需形成新的學術理論或者研究范式,也正在形成從"差序格局"到"社會結構轉型",從"多元一體"到和"一國多族",從"文化自覺"到"文化自信"的轉變中。

As for Chinese society, since 1970 Professor Fei Xiaotong has?put?forward three important theories: "the?differential?mode?of?association"(1948), "diversity in unity"(1988) and "cultural consciousness"(1997) which have exerted much influence at home and abroad. Because China has experienced enormous changes in the past 40-year reform and opening-up, it seems that all the three theories are somewhat outdated and need improvement to meet the demands of the new era. It is worthy for anthropologists and ethnologists to sum up the Chinese experience and establish Chinese theories under the overall socio-economic transformation in China. However, Chinese anthropologists and ethnologists are in?a dilemma of lacking theoretical innovations and wait for new theories. It is good to see that some new research paradigms are taking?shape, that is, a shift from the above-mention three theories to "transformation of the social structure", "multi-ethnic groups in one country" and "cultural confidence", which are the new research directions for new anthropologists and ethnologists born in the 1970 s, the1980 s and the 1990s.