Social scientists in China should take advantage of the reform and opening-up of China which have brought profound social transformation when conducting studies, top officials and scholars said at a meeting to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Institute of Sociology under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Tuesday.

The CASS president said the changes provide good opportunities for sociologists to develop their studies and theories.

"The most urgent question faced by China is its modernization and its impact. It has brought forward big challenges to sociologists and other social science researchers," said Li Tieying, who was also a member of the political bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

China's sociology studies appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. It continued to grow after the founding of New China in 1949, but the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) severely suffocated the research.

In 1980, the Institute of Sociology under the CASS was set up and sociological studies have been revived in many key universities to study China's contemporary societies.

In recent years, researchers of the institute have concentrated their studies in such fields as China's peasants, industrializations in rural areas, marital and family problems, poverty and prostitution.

Li stressed that follow-up studies should be made in some research areas so that social relations could be clearly revealed.

The political dimensions and significance in the social sciences should be clearly understood by Chinese researchers, he said.

Lei Jieqiong and Fei Xiaotong, two former vice-chairpersons of the National People's Congress, conveyed their congratulations to the institute.

Fei Xiaotong, who was among the first generation of China's sociologists, stressed the importance of ethnic studies in sociology.