Literature and Journalism

The College of Literature and Journalism of Sichuan University has been sharing a long history with Sichuan University which originally consisted of School of Arts, School of Science, School of Technology and School of Agriculture. Famous scholars such as Xiang Chu and Zhu Guangqian had undertaken the leadership of the School of Arts; and Liu Dajie, Pan Chonggui and Yang Mingzhao, had been deans of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature. In 1950s, The School of Arts was divided into Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of Foreign Languages, Department of History, and etc. In 1994, the School of Arts was reestablished, including Department of Chinese Language and Literature and the Department of History. The College of Literature and Journalism of Sichuan University was founded in 1998, combining the Department of Chinese Language and Literature and the Department of Journalism, presently Professor Cao Shunqing as the Dean, Associate Professor Xiong Lan as the Secretary of the Party Committee, Professor Wu Jian and Professor Lei Hanqing as the Vice Dean, and Associate Professor Luo Mei as the Vice Secretary of the Party Committee.

There is a competent staff of 132 members in the College of Literature and Journalism—43 professors, 24 associate professors, 24 tutors of doctoral candidates, among whom there are 2 Distinguished Professors of Humanities and Arts of Sichuan University, 1 Cheung Kong Scholar, 1 Committee Member of Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, 1 Committee Member of National Social Science Fund, 1 National Outstanding Teacher, 1 member of Social Sciences Commission of the Ministry of Education, 2 vice chairmen of the Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, 5 supported by Trans－Century Training Program Foundation for the Talents or Supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents by the State Education, 10 leading scholars of Sichuan Province and 7 grantees of Special Subsidies by the State Council.

The college consists of 6 departments—Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of Comparative Literature and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, Department of Journalism, Department of Advertising, Department of Broadcasting, Film & TV, Department of Mass Communication as well as 15 research institutes such as Institute for Non-orthodox Chinese Culture, Institute of Chinese Language and Literature, Institute of Journalism.

The College aims to be an advanced research college and to train excellent talents for society. It has already formed a complete system covering undergraduate courses, graduate programs, Ph.D programs and post-doctorial programs. The college has been authorized to confer Doctor Degree of Chinese Language and Literature, covering 14 specialties for doctorial candidates (Theory of Literature and Arts, Chinese Classics, Contemporary Chinese Literature, Chinese Philology, Chinese Linguistics, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Linguistics and Literature of Chinese Minorities, Comparative Literature and World Literature, Literature Theory and Media, Cultural Criticism, Literature Anthropology, Buddhist Language and Literature, and Literary Theory of Broadcast TV and Film Literature, Journalism); 15 specialties for academic Master’s degree; 1 special Master’s degree of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages; 1 post-doctorial station for Chinese Language and Literature; and 6 majors for bachelor’s degree (Chinese Language and Literature, Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, Journalism, Mass Communication, Advertising, Editing and Publishing). After the 2 early state-level key disciplines (Comparative Literature and World Literature, Chinese Philology), a third state-level key discipline of Theory of Literature and Arts was granted to the college in 2007. At the same year, a first-level-state-key discipline of Chinese Language and Literature was granted to the college covering 8 second-level-state key disciplines. Meanwhile, there is 1 innovation research base of the National Project 985, 1 key discipline of the Project 211, 1 base for talents training and scientific research of state level fundamental subjects, 1 base for talents training and scientific research of provincial level discipline of Journalism (bachelor’s degree). The 2 mentioned disciplines: Comparative Literature and World Literature, Chinese Philology head the list of universities in China.

There are now 10 post doctorates, 1,322 Ph.D and Master degree candidates, 1,540 undergraduates, 19 foreign students studying in the College of Literature and Journalism of Sichuan University. The ratio of graduate students to undergraduate students is 1: 0.86.

The College of Literature and Journalism has achieved great progress in the field of education and research. Since 1998, more than 40 national and provincial programs have been undertaken, a large quantity of academic works and papers have come off the press, more than 60 different ranks of awards have been won, 2 national golden curriculums, 2 national unique curriculums have been constructed, a state level teaching team on comparative literature has been set up by teachers from the College of Literature and Journalism.

The college emphasized much on academic communication and co-operation home and abroad. By now, the college has already organized a series of international seminars on Chinese Philology, International Comparative Literature, Chinese Non-orthodox Culture Study, Chinese Dietetic Culture, Chinese History and so on. Meanwhile, the college has established good relationships with over 10 world-famous universities of the U.S.A., Canada, U.K., the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hongkong. Since 2007, the college has made great progress in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages Education. The college is allowed to recruit 80 MTCSOL every year. As one of the first Chinese education bases in Sichuan Province selected by Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, it has hosted a series of overseas Chinese youth summer/winter camps and offered Chinese language training to overseas Chinese teachers.

Since 1996, We had originated several academic journals including Culture Studies & Literary Theory, Collected Papers of Chinese Language History Research, Neo-Sinology, Comparative Literature: East & West (English version), Study on Chinese Non-orthodox Culture, Contemporary Chinese Literature and Culture, and Journalism & Communication.

During the long-term practice of school, the college has been aiming to train high-level personnel, formed a school running pattern based on undergraduate education, focused on graduate cultivating, supplemented by other education structures. The college administration attaches great importance to foster students’ academic grounding and abilities, hosting a series of academic forums, inviting numbers of famous scholars both home and abroad. DR Forums given by top Ph.D candidates and Classics Forums given by top Master degree candidates and undergraduates are hosted every semester. Encouraging undergraduate to create literary works, the college has also sponsored two literature publications Qidian(Starting Point) and Qingtong(Green Paulownia).

There are reference books room, circulation room and Academic journals room with about 100 thousand books in the college library. Over 400 pieces of teaching facility and equipment are in service in 6 labs of over 100 square meters.

Through hard working by generations of staff, the College of Literature and Journalism has attained a great achievement in personnel training, scientific research and disciplines construction: 2 Ph.D graduates have been granted Cheung Kong Scholar, 1 PhD dissertations has been awarded as one of the Top 100 Doctoral Dissertations in China. The college now has developed to be a leading base in the personnel training and research fields of Chinese Language and Literature, Journalism and Communication. All teachers and students are striving toward a high level research-oriented college and endeavor to contribute more to the Western development and the construction of the nation.