Abstract: Carrying on the research of sustainable livelihoods for peasant household has great significance to eliminating poverty and promoting the social and economic sustainable development in rural areas. Based on consulting extensive related literature, this paper elaborates the definition of sustainable livelihoods firstly and briefly describes foreign research progress of it. Then, the research progress of sustainable livelihoods for peasant household in China is summarized from the research contents, research technologies and methodologies. The summary of recent research achievements concerns five topics: (1) research on livelihood assets; (2) research on livelihood strategies; (3) research on livelihood vulnerability; (4) research on transforming structures and processes of the institutions,organizations,policies and legislation; and (5) research on the interrelation between the livelihood of peasant household and the ecological environment. Finally, on the basis of analyzing the domestic research progress of sustainable livelihoods for peasant household above, this paper argues that the main trends of Chinese future research on sustainable livelihoods for peasant household should be as follows: (1) interdisciplinary, integrated and systematic research on sustainable livelihoods for peasant household; (2) integrated research using new technologies and dynamic research; (3) research on the sustainable livelihoods for peasant household and poverty; (4) research on the sustainable livelihoods for peasant household under the new situation of rural-urban transformation in China; and (5) research on the sustainable livelihoods for peasant household in the key areas.

Key words: China, peasant household, research progress, research tendency, sustainable livelihoods