Kaixiangong

Kai·xian·gong
K5A1I1X8I1A1N1G2O1N1G2
/ˌkaɪʃjænˈɡɒŋ//ˌkaɪʃjɛnˈɡʊŋ/

proper noun

A village in Qidu, Wujiang district, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.

Scrabble 24

Meanings

proper noun

alternative K'ai-hsien-kung · alternative Kaihsienkung

  1. A village in Qidu, Wujiang district, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.

    For example, when Fei Xiaotong studied the rural community of Kaixiangong (Kaihsienkung) half a century ago, he found these three calendars already in use.

    2000, Xin Liu, In One's Own Shadow: an Ethnographic Account of the Condition of Post-reform Rural China, University of California Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 86
    4 more examples

    The village chosen for my investigation is called Kaihsienkung, locally pronounced kejiug’on. It is situated on the south-east bank of Lake Tai, in the lower course of the Yangtze River and about eighty miles west of Shanghai.

    Peasant Life in China

    [1939, Hsiao-tung (費孝通) Fei, 江村經濟 [Peasant Life in China], London: George Routledge and Sons, →OCLC, →OL, pages 9–10

    At the time of Fei’s study, Kaihsienkung had two headmen. The elder of the two did not deal with the higher government, having allowed a younger man to fill the official post.

    [1958, Elman R. Service, Profiles in Ethnology, Harper & Row, published 1963, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 451

    Fei Xiaotong (Fei Hsiao-tung) (1939 : 22) reported that people over 60 constituted 6.3 percent of the village of Kaixiangong (K'ai-hsien-kung) in 1936, and those over 70 were 1.4 percent, exactly the proportions I found in my survey of Ploughshare.

    1981, Other Ways of Growing Old, Stanford, Cali.: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 195

    In reporting here on his recent visits to the village of Kaixiangong, Fei Xiaotong presents the views of one of China's most noted social anthropologists on recent changes in the Chinese countryside as reflected in the village he first studied in 1936. Through a projected series of visits to Kaixiangong over the next several years, Fei hopes eventually to provide an update to his classic book, Peasant Life in China, first published in 1939.¹⁴ Kaixiangong has recently been designated a "field research station," and new Chinese graduate students in sociology will have an opportunity to conduct field research in that village and its surrounding region.

    1983, Anne F. Thurston, Burton Pasternak, editors, The Social Sciences and Fieldwork in China: Views from the Field, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 12

Origin

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for 開弦弓/开弦弓 (Kāixiángōng).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 開弦弓 /开弦弓
  • 開弦弓 /开弦弓 (Kāixiángōng)village in eastern China
Cite this entry
APA

Kaixiangong. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kaixiangong

MLA

“Kaixiangong.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kaixiangong. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Kaixiangong,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kaixiangong.

Source: Kaixiangong on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.