Introduction to the Department of Chinese Language and Literature

  The Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Shenzhen University, founded in 1984, is one of the earliest departments established after the founding of Shenzhen University. It was established with the support of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature in Peking University, and founded by famous scholars such as Yue Daiyun and Hu Jingzhi. It has a high starting point and strong academic strength.

   In the 40-year history of Shenzhen, the Department of Chinese Language and Literature has always upheld the goal of serving the construction of the Special Zone, emphasizing the integration of general education, special education and individual education, focusing on the cultivation of students' learning ability, innovation ability, and ability of practice. It has established a talent training system and academic study of Chinese discipline which is compatible with the culture of the Special Zone, improving the teaching quality constantly, making continuous breakthroughs in teaching, research, and the construction of discipline. In 1996, it passed the undergraduate teaching evaluation of the Ministry of Education, and now has two undergraduate programs: Chinese language and literature, and Chinese language and literature (Chinese Pedagogy). Since 1998, it has been approved to confer master’s degrees in seven programs: Theory of Literature and Art, Comparative Literature and World Literature, Classical Chinese literature, Modern and Contemporary Chinese literature, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Chinese Philology, and International Education of Chinese (professional master's degree). In 2018, the first-tier discipline of Chinese Language and Literature was approved to offer doctoral degrees in six programs: Theory of Literature and Art, Classical Chinese literature, Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature, Comparative Literature and World Literature, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, and Cultural Industry and Cultural Innovation. There are nearly 720 undergraduate students and more than 110 graduate students, including 16 doctoral students.

   The department of Chinese Language and Literature has a high-quality faculty team. Since the establishment the department has continuously brought in talents from top universities at home and abroad. 89% of the faculty have received doctorate degrees. There are 47 full-time faculty members, including 17 professors, 19 associate professors, 15 doctoral supervisors, 40 master supervisors. We have a well-established academic echelon with outstanding teaching and research achievements. We have several research platforms, including the Center of Comparative Literature, the Center for Theory of Literature and Art, the Center of Applied Linguistics, the Center for the Creative Writing and Studies of Contemporary Chinese Literature, the Center for Studies of Language and Cognition, the Center of Overseas Chinese Studies, the Center of the Forbidden City Studies, the Somaesthetics Center, and the Center of Contemporary Popular Culture.

   Relying on the advantages of development of the Special Zone, and its proximity to Hong Kong and Macao, the Department of Chinese Language and Literature has always paid attention to the frontiers of theory, focused on cultural comparisons, and emphasized disciplinary connections, thus forming the following disciplinary characteristics:

（1）   The program of Theory of Literature and Art is a prioritized key discipline in Guangdong Province. It has a solid tradition in the fields of Literary Aesthetics, Comparative Poetics, Classical Chinese literature and Aesthetics, and Classical German aesthetics. In recent years it has been particularly innovative in the frontier fields of somaesthetics, ecological aesthetics, phenomenological aesthetics and contemporary practical aesthetics. It focuses on the integration of the classical and the modern, and of the Chinese and the foreign. It is one of the origins of literary aesthetics studies in China, and it also holds a key academic position in literary aesthetics studies in China.

（2）  The program of Classical Chinese Literature has gathered multiple forces in the studies of Qin and Han literature, Wei and Jin literature, Tang and Song poetry and song lyric, Ming-Qing poetry and prose, and fiction and drama, showing strong team strength. Recently we have made many pioneering and innovative efforts in the fields of Han dynasty portrait studies, studies of tonal patterns and rhyme schemes of song lyric , cultural studies of literature, and studies of overseas Chinese classics.

（3）   The program of Morden and Contemporary Chinese literature has made outstanding achievements in the fields of Lu Xun Studies, modern Chinese literary trends studies, and modern literary periodicals studies, and has always been engaged in creative writing and criticism, and there emerge renowned contemporary writers such as Nan Xiang, Yu Xiu, Xue Yiwei, and Lin Peiyuan from the faculty and students.

（4）   The program of Comparative Literature and World Literature, as the place where the studies of comparative literature in China started, has developed solid and fruitful research in the fields, such as Chinese and Indian poetics and cultural studies, comparative culture and interdisciplinary studies, studies of Sino-Russian relations and cultural influence, studies of post-colonial literature and theory, studies of Nobel Prize literature, studies of science fiction and post-humanism, which are both pioneering in academic research and meeting the needs of cultural integration and exchange in the contemporary world.

（5）   The program of Chinese Philology has long been devoted to the research in the fields, such as philology and excavated documents, phonology and Chinese dialects, exegetics and document linguistics, in search for the history of development and evolution of Chinese language and Chinese characters, and paying close attention to the interdisciplinary studies of Chinese language and historical archaeology, language and literature.

（6）  The program of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics focuses on the study of language and applications of language, and is widely involved in the fields, such as children's dyslexia, modern Chinese dialects, experimental phonetics, cognitive linguistics, lexicography, grammar, International Education of Chinese, etc. It has a lab center for teaching Chinese literature and language and information processing, and in 2017 it was approved to offer master’s degree in international education of Chinese, which provides an excellent platform for cultivating application-oriented talents and innovation-oriented talents of Chinese language.

   The Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Shenzhen University always adheres to the professional training objectives of exploration and innovation, winning with characteristics, and connecting with international standards, and strives to create a regional first-class discipline of Chinese language and literature and to build a highland of Chinese education and innovation in the Special Zone.