C.K. Yang First U.S. Sociologist to Visit China.

This article focuses on C. K. Yang of the University of Pittsburgh as the first U.S. sociologist to visit the People's Republic of China. After receiving an invitation on short notice, Yang spent roughly one month in China during last October-November 1971. During this period he returned to a number of places he had known prior to the revolution. His trip took him to six cities and two communes. Because Yang was afforded this unique opportunity to compare the present with the past, he was asked to respond to several queries for the American Sociological Association (ASA) members at large. He is presently writing at greater length on the topic, though he notes that his role was that of the tourist-sociologist rather than sociological researcher. Yang said what impressed him most deeply was the information gap between what he saw in China and the China depicted in Western literature in general, including partly his own writings on communist China during the past twenty years. The inaccurate and in some cases unrealistic impression on China poses a serious problem for educators who have a responsibility to inform the U.S. public, most especially the younger generation.