Description
Built almost from scratch, the international and area studies in China had for a long time been under the shadow of language studies, their training a by-product of foreign language education and their theoretical tools and methods confined in a Marxist-Maoist system. After the open-up of China to western academic disciplines and the expansion of Chinese interests in the world, the international and area studies in China have been in a slow but steady evolution.
Through analyzing data drawn from higher education institutions and government agencies in China, this paper seeks to survey the history of the development of the international and area studies in China, focusing on the evolution of the discipline after the Chinese economic reform in 1978 and paying special attention to recent development fueled by the vast input of fundings and academics after the launch of Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. This paper also seeks to reflect on how Chinese government and institutions responded to the problems rose in the development of the discipline, further shedding light on the future of international studies in China.
