Abstract: Missionaries undoubtedly made great contributions to cultural and intellectual exchange and development in modern China. In order to introduce Christianity to Chinese people more effectively based on the similarities between Western and Chinese cultures, some Western missionaries focused on the investigation and understanding of social customs and folk literature in China. Among them, Henri Doré was a representative who attempted to understand, study and record the social life and customs in China. When he came to China in 1884, Henri Doré started to investigate the social life and customs as well as folk literature in Shanghai, Jiangsu and An'hui, etc. and finally complied a series of Researches into Chinese Superstitions in a great number of volumes. In effect, Western missionaries' investigating and understanding from the perspective of the other has formed a special type of modern Chinese social ethnography, which contains not only concrete records but also a unique style of culture theory with Western missionaries' particular understanding from the other's angle.

Key words: modern society, missionaries, custom, folk superstition