The School of Philosophy and Sociology held a symposium entitled “Cultural Practice of a Beautiful Life – New Horizon of Anthropology”. This symposium is one of the academic activity series celebrating the 110th anniversary of Lanzhou University. Scholars from University of Oslo, Xiamen University, Sichuan University, Tongji University, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University and Minzu University of China, etc. reported their latest research achievements. Over ten scholars participated in the discussion.

Leading a beautiful life is not only a theme derived from Sherry Ortner’s critique of the dark anthropology, but the key word of the Chinese Communist Party’s comprehension of the main problem in current China.

Nowadays anthropology faces deep crisis. This crisis is from the even vaguer definition of anthropology’s research object, for which the accumulated research methods of anthropology is not adequate. When the anthropologists can not form any theoretical system based on vague research objects and the dominating neoliberalism urges man to strive for their reproduction, as ordinary human-beings, the anthropologists constantly focus their research on trivial affairs with their sociological imagination and ethnographic insight. Trivial affairs deprives man of meaning, goals and sense of direction, even though everyday life is a new research field opened up by Henri Lefebvre to observe the nowadays society. Many attendants showed their concern for order, ethics and welfare in their everyday life. According to their ethnographic researches, the scholars gave their reports on various forms of beautiful life practice in China and on their concern for order, ethics and welfare implicated in this variety.