School of Chinese Language and Literature

The School (School of Chinese Language and Literature)’s roots can be traced back to 1900s, when it was time for China to make resolution bringing educational reforms in order to train a lot of students being capable to carry on the tradition of Chinese literature and language in the changing times as well as being with knowledge necessary for a prospective modern society. Actually, this idea was made from the beginning so that there be always a task for the School to hold the position of theoria as well as to care about the reality, and to preserve our cultural tradition as well as to introduce as much as possible from other cultural traditions, whence came first our name of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature, which is one of the few with a long history and with a good reputation in China. Fortunately, many known masters had taught here, such as Lu xun, Qian xuan-tong, Li jin-xi, Xu shou-chang, Yang shu-da, Liu ban-nong, Liu pan-sui, Tan pi-mo, Gu sui, Huang yao-mian, Zhong jing-wen, Li he-lin, Lu zong-da, Li chang-zhi, Qi gong and so on, and this is great for us.

In 2003, the Department was renamed “the School”. After this transformation, the School consists of ten institutes, that is, Institute of Chinese Language, Institute of Applied Linguistics, Institute of Literature Theory, Institute of Chinese Ancient Literature, Institute of Modern Chinese literature, Institute of Comparative Literature and World Literature, Institute of Folklore and Cultural Anthropology, Institute of Folklore and Social Development, Institute of Communication Studies, Institute of Chinese Education.

Apart from being one of those firstly approved by the State Council of China as one of the earliest degree conferral institutions for Master and Doctor degree, the School of Chinese Language and Literature is both one of the only first two postdoctoral research stations in the field of Chinese Language and Literature approved officially, and one of those National Fundamental Research Talent Training and Scientific Research Bases firstly approved. In 2007, the discipline of Chinese Language and Literature was also approved by the Ministry of Education as one of the few national key disciplines among the first-grade disciplines while the discipline of Folklore as one of the few national key disciplines among the second-grade disciplines, which altogether explicitly confirmed the strength of our School.

In 2004, the School was appraised by Higher Education Evaluation Center of the Ministry of Education as No. 2 in a whole as well as No. 1 in two items among all the School of Chinese Language and Literature in national wide. From 2005 to 2008, the discipline of Chinese Language and Literature was annually appraised by “the Evaluation of Chinese University” as No. 1 among all the discipline of Chinese Language and Literature.

Characterized by its integration of instructional programs and the research activities, the School of Chinese Language and Literature has since 2001 undertaken 10 state- or ministry-funded key research and development projects as well as has been awarded 41 prizes by the State or by the Ministry. In addition, the School has gained from both the State and the Ministry the financial support of ￥9 million since 2001. In the past eight years, the faculty of the School published 402 books as well as 784 articles in CSSCI periodicals.

Known for its academic excellence, extraordinary faculty, outstanding facilities, and gifted students, the School of Chinese Language and Literature offers programs leading to the B. L. programs in 2 programs (Chinese Language and Literature, Journalism and Communication Studies), the M.L. degrees in 12 programs (Literature Theory, Chinese Language, Applied Linguistics, Chinese Philology, Chinese Ancient Literature, Chinese Modern literature, Comparative Literature and World Literature, Folklore, Journalism, Children Literature, Curriculum and Instruction Theory, Folk Literature) and the Ph. L. degrees in 9 programs (Literature Theory, Chinese Language, Applied Linguistics, Chinese Philology, Chinese Ancient Literature, Chinese Modern literature, Comparative Literature and World Literature, Folklore, Folk Literature). The School enrolls approximately 2,209 students (845 undergraduates, 755 graduates, 274 candidates of doctoral degrees), including 335 students from abroad. Approximately 102 distinguished scholars and researchers (88 with doctoral degree) teach and mentor students. The School also offers joint-degree programs (such as a program for B. L. and M. L. in Singapore) as well as opportunities for advanced non-degree study. Recently it has established two Confucius Institutes respectively in United Stated and Canada.

By holding more than 20 international academic conferences, the School has also kept a close interaction with a number of universities and institutions abroad, From 2004, more than 50 in the School went to the universities and institutions abroad for communication. In this October, incidentally, another international academic conference will be held in the School, which originates from the cooperation with University of Oklahoma at U.S.A.