This paper argues that the academic tradition of Chinese anthropology and ethnology mainly consists of four parts: Western anthropological theories, classical Marxist ethnology, Soviet ethnology, and Chinese local empirical studies, in order to clarify Chinese anthropology and ethnology in the world academic circles and its characteristics. The authors believe that, by virtue of its diverse academic traditions, Chinese anthropology and ethnology has established an anthropological and ethnological system with its own features. After the four major research paradigms of the United Kingdom, the United States, the European continent, and the Soviet Union, Chinese anthropology and ethnology constitutes the world's fifth major anthropological academic tradition, and launched a dialogue with the international academic community, thus gradually proposing innovative anthropological and ethnological theories and methods with Chinese characteristics. As the fifth tradition of anthropology and ethnology in the world, Chinese anthropology and ethnology is the result of several generations of scholars exploring new theories and new methods. It takes Marxism and the thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics as its guiding principles, the people as the center, and is fully integrated with the socialist modernization construction. In addition, it also combines historical documents and ethnological research, which has a profound historical origin.
