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Founded in 1926, the Department of Chinese Language and Literature prides itself on a long list of famous scholars as its faculty members—Professors Chen Yinke, Zhao Yuanren, Yang Shuda, Wen Yiduo, Zhu Ziqing, Liu Wendian, Yu Pingbo, Pu Jiangqing, Wang Yao, Wang Li, Lv Shuxiang, and so on. It either advocated or opened a series of new disciplinary directions, such as the history of drama, literary anthropology, and poetry-history approach, and is regarded unanimously as the birthplace of the study of modern and contemporary Chinese literature as a discipline, as well as modern Chinese linguistics.

The Department discontinued in the nationwide restructuring of institutions of higher education in 1952, and its faculty and students were sent off to Peking University and other universities and academic institutions.

The Department was restored in 1985, and its focus is on the faculty and disciplinary consolidation and scholarship. It has a vigorous, high-quality, and internationalized faculty, and currently, there are 21 faculty members, including 14 full professors, 6 associate professors, of whom 15 are Ph.D. degree holders, and 21 have experience of studying, teaching, and participating in international cooperation in foreign countries. Since 2006, it has become a first-tier Ph.D. program, and in 2007, it began to have a postdoctoral program. Now it has 6 Ph.D. and M.A. degree programs in modern and contemporary Chinese literature, classical Chinese literature, comparative literature and world literature, literature and the arts, linguistics and applied linguistics and Chinese philology, along with a number of research institutions, such as Research Center for Linguistics, Center for the Study of Ancient Chinese Literature, Tsinghua-Columbia University Center for Translingual and Transcultural Studies, Center for the Study of Chinese Calligraphy and Culture, Center for the Endangered Culture in Southwest China, and so on. The faculty are working on a number of national key research projects, and have published many high-quality books and research papers, and have received wide attention and praises among their peers at home and abroad.

The Department attaches a great importance to talent cultivation, and adheres closely to its scholarly tradition of “Be conversant with Chinese and Western learning, as well as classical and modern learning, and study both literature and science to make a difference and be innovative.” For the undergraduate education, it focuses on cultivating talents who are expected to have comparatively high comprehensive ability, and be well-versed in both Chinese and Western learning, and for the M.A. and Ph.D. students, we emphasize a solid foundation in the knowledge of his area of study, a high research capability and practical skills.

The Department actively engages itself in international education programs, and for international undergraduates, we train them to acquire a systematic and wholesome knowledge of Chinese language, literature, and culture, and for the M.A. and Ph.D. students, our goal is for them to acquire a comparatively high capability to understand, and study Chinese language, literature, and culture. We receive exchange students from many countries each year.

Every year we invite a number of famous scholars and professors from at home and abroad to lecture in the Department, while sending abroad a couple of our professors to teach or visit.

Currently, Professor Wang Zhongchen is chair of the Department, and Professors Zhang Meilan, Professor Zhang Haiming are vice chairs.

Address: Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China

Postal code: 100084

Tel： 86-10-6278 3158

Fax： 86-10-6278 5736

Email： zhongwx@tsinghua.edu.cn