Kinship And Community In Two Chinese Villages  Translation And Revisits (Complex Chinese Edition)

Author: Burton Pasternak
Chief Editor: Huang, Shiun-Wey
Publication Date: February 2021
This volume, Kinship and Community in Two Chinese Villages: Translation and Revisits, is a collaborative project between the Hakka Cultural Development Center, Hakka Affairs Council and Research Fellow Huang Hsuan-wei of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica. It presents the Complex Chinese translation of American anthropologist Prof. Burton Pasternak’s seminal 1960s study Kinship and Community in Two Chinese Villages, which examined kinship structures and community organization in two southern Taiwanese villages—Tatie Village in Xinpi Township (新埤鄉打鐵村), Pingtung (a Hakka settlement within the Liugdui region) and Chung-she Village in Lioujia (六甲區中社里) District, Tainan (a Southern Hokkien settlement).
In addition to the translation, the research team revisited the original field sites, comparing present-day conditions with those described in Pasternak’s ethnography. In 2020, the team also conducted an oral history interview with Prof. Pasternak, reflecting on his field experiences and the broader context of his anthropological research in Taiwan. These revisits and interviews are included in this edition, enriching the dialogue between past and present scholarship.
As the first translated academic work published by the Hakka Cultural Development Center, this volume seeks to promote international exchange in Hakka and Taiwan studies, expanding the accessibility and impact of foundational ethnographic research, while fulfilling the Center’s mission to foster diverse and comprehensive documentation of Hakka culture.