Skinner, G. William (George William), 1925-2008

G. William Skinner was born in Oakland, California, in 1925. From 1942-43, he attended Deeps Springs College (California), then joined the Navy V-12 Program at Missouri Valley College for two years before completing 18 months of instruction in Chinese at the U.S. Navy Oriental Language School at the University of Colorado. He then completed his Bachelor's degree at Cornell University (1946-47) with Distinction in Far Eastern Studies.

Skinner then went on to pursue doctoral studies in anthropology at Cornell University, with an interest in market towns and their regions in China. He began fieldwork at Gaodianzi, near Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in 1949, but this was disrupted when the Communists won the civil war in China. Skinner was forced to leave his fieldsite in January, 1950, and was confined to Chengdu until August, when he was allowed to leave China.

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