My Father-like Professor Shi Zhengyi: The Pioneer of Chinese Ethnological Economics (Personal Story)

Professor Shi Zhengyi (1932-2015) was the same age as my father. In Chinese tradition, a teacher for a day is a father for life. Hence, I respectfully call Professor Shi my Father-like Professor. Born in Tongcheng County, Anhui Province, in 1932. Professor Shi graduated from the Master’s Program in History of Economics of the Department of Economics of Renmin University of China in 1957. As a renowned Chinese ethnographer and economist, he has been engaged in theoretical research and teaching economics and ethnology for a long time. With meticulous scholarship and profound knowledge, he has studied Chinese and Western cultures with countless new ideas for research. Moreover, he proposed and verified the scientific approach to theoretical thinking that goes from “representation to the abstract and the concrete.” He initiated the establishment of the discipline of ethnological economics and the Institute of Ethnological Economics, pioneering the Marxist theory of ethnology specific to China. He was also the first to systematically verify the develop-the-west strategy, providing a theoretical basis for formulating national policies. He has been devoted to teaching for over 50 years, producing fruitful academic results. He has published eight monographs, edited 14 books, and published more than 120 papers. The Collected Works of Professor Shi, with more than 600,000 characters, represents the crystallization of his academic thoughts throughout his life. In his long-term academic activities and educational practices, Professor Shi developed a unique scientific approach to study known as the “rigorous, diligent, practical, creative and contextual” approach.