Researches on the history of modern Chinese thought and culture in the past 30 years

The researches on the history of modern Chinese thought and culture in the past 30 years, in accordance with the transformation of the emphasis of the research, can be divided into three stages: the first one is from 1978 to the late 1980s, in which the researches focused on the cases of ideologists and the history of political thought; the second one is from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, in which the emphasis of study had gradually shifted to the trends of social thought and the cases of ideologists; the last one is from the 1990s to the present, in which the studies have been concentrated upon the history of trends of social thought and the history of academic thought. In the transition process of the emphasis of study, the research scope of modern intellectual history has continuously broadened, and the research profundity of that has gradually deepened. One of the most re-markable phenomena after reform and opening-up is the revival of the research on Chinese cultural history. The new trend of the progress of Chinese cultural history since 1990s is the rise of the research on the history of societal culture. The research fields which have been out of favor for a long time, such as modern science and technology, folk religion, folk ideology and conception, cultural mentality, public space, new words and expressions, changes of concept, etc, have been widely concerned, and many research achievements appeared. History of modern societal culture has been becoming a significant growing point of new conceptions and newmeans of historical research.