Social theorists like Weber sought to explain why modernity emerged in the West but not in the supposedly “unchanging” non-Western societies. These theorists based their understanding of non-European civilizations on the biased works of prominent Orientalists of their time. Weber’s primary sources on China were the later works of Legge and de Groot. Though the distorted views in such Sinological works were later rejected in the field, the prejudices of nineteenth-century Orientalism persisted through dominant, universal social theories – like Weber-inspired modernization theory. Meanwhile, Sinology, as it evolved into postwar China Studies, became one of the first Area Studies fields to “de-Orientalize” by shedding centuries of reductionist and essentialist epistemology. This de-Orientalizing process began on the fringes of Sinology in the mid twentieth century, benefitting from new social science methods and the growing participation of Chinese scholars. It culminated in the transformative 1960s, a time when many Eurocentric ideologies were challenged and China’s geopolitical relations with the West shifted drastically after the Sino–Soviet split.