Gaining a familiarity with folk culture As a student, Riftin made frequent trips to central Asia to study Chinese Muslim emigrant communities. This led to an interest in folk literature, and in central Asia, Outer Mongolia, Vietnam and many other places he has widely collected historical materials on folk literature.
學生時代，李福清前往中亞回族村做民間調查，使他對民間文學產生興趣，並在中亞、外蒙古、越南許多地區廣泛收集民間文學史料。