In China, area studies belong to international studies. Over the past three decades, this discipline has gained increased attention and importance as China’s position on the world stage has been rising and there is a great need to familiarize itself with the outside world. However, several problems need to be addressed before area studies can advance more steadily in the future. The structure of this article is as follows. In the first section, the author goes over the development process of area studies in China. Then he offers a brief introduction to the structure of this discipline. Finally, the author endeavors to list the major problems faced by the Chinese scholars of area studies.

I. How Have Area Studies Developed in China?

When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, it was immediately isolated by the West. As a result, China maintained its relations only with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. However, isolation of China by the West did not prevent it from trying to gain a better understanding of the world. As a matter of fact, China found it highly necessary to have more knowledge of the outside world because its mandate, strongly influenced by Mao Zedong’s revolutionary ideology, was to “liberate the human being of the whole world”. Therefore, in the 1950s, there were a few scholars who carried out international studies. Their academic interest was mainly about how the capitalist world was suffering from economic and political crises and how the working class was waging revolt against capitalism. As there were no purely academic journals on international studies, these scholars could only publish their writings on newspapers and popular magazines like People’s Daily and World Affairs.

After the Cuban revolution in 1959, China realized that the developing world could be friends in its struggle against hegemony and imperialism. It was reported that, one day in the early 1960s, Mao Zedong was looking at the map of the world, saying, “We don’t know much about Africa and Latin America”. On July 4, 1961, the Institute of Western Asian and African Studies and the Institute of Latin American Studies were established at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.[①]

During the Cultural Revolution (1966~1976), all the universities and academic institutions were closed down, and intellectuals were sent to countryside or factories to receive “revolutionary re-education”. Undoubtedly, international studies were non-existent during that period.

After China adopted opening up and reform policy in 1978, the top leadership realized that, in order to better integrate itself with the world, it was highly imperative to understand what was going on outside. Deng Xiaoping said on different occasions that China should learn from others towards this end. For instance, when he met with other leaders of the Communist Party of China on August 2, 1991, Deng Xiaoping praised Southeast nations’ economic performance and called for thorough research to draw on their experiences for China.[②]

Reform and opening to the outside world brought forward dramatic transformation in every corner of the nation. With the re-birth of academic life, research on social sciences, including international/area studies, started to boom. Many universities began to offer courses on world history, world economy and world politics and admitted more students majoring in foreign languages. New research institutions or programs on international/area studies have been created. To meet the needs of the scholars, many academic journals on international studies have been inaugurated. Television, radio stations, newspapers and popular magazines have allocated more time and space for world news, creating a huge demand for experts on international/area studies.

In 1999, the Ministry of Education started to implement a grand project of encouraging the development of social science research in the major universities. A large amount of financial resources have been allocated to establish what is called “Research Base for Humanities and Social Sciences”. International/area studies were included in some of the research bases. Research centers established under the project included: European studies in the Renmin University of China, American studies in the Fudan University, Northeast Asian studies in the Jilin University, Russian studies in the East China Normal University, Southeast Asian studies in Xiamen University, South Asian studies in the Sichuan University, Middle East studies in the Shanghai International Studies University, APEC studies in Nankai University, Mongolian studies in the Inner Mongolian University, etc.

Another impetus for the development of China’s area studies came in March 2004 when the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a document calling for more effective measures to further advance social science research. The measures included: upgrading the position of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought-Deng Xiaoping Theory-The Three Represents in guiding social science research; creating a better environment for academic freedom; making theoretical innovations based on the socialist system with Chinese characteristics; and cultivating more competent and talented scholars and researchers.

It was reported that the former State Councilor Liu Yandong, who was in charge of China’s educational development, said on different occasions in 2011 that area studies should be further promoted. She even suggested that one hundred research centers for area studies should be established by universities across the nation. In November 2011, according to the news report, the Ministry of Education released a document instructing universities to strengthen area studies by creating more influential think-tanks.[③]

Also in 2011, CASS launched what is now dubbed as “Innovation Projects for Social Science Research”. So far, two-thirds of the institutes at CASS, including several institutes on area studies, have participated in it. With more funding, more flexible policies and more incentives, this project is expected to better fulfill its three mandates: a stronghold for the study of Marxism, a think-tank for the Communist Party of China and the government, and the best place for social sciences research in China. It is certain that international/area studies will also benefit from the project.

II. Who Are the Scholars of Area Studies?

According to China’s official Classification and code of disciplines (GB/T 13745-92), published on November 1, 1992, international studies and/or area studies do not fall into any disciplinary branch. Consequently, for instance, “Japanese economy” belongs to the category of “world economy”, which is in the discipline of “Economics” (Code 790); and “African politics” is found in the category of “world politics”, which appears in the discipline of “Political Sciences” (Code 810).

Despite this arrangement, area studies in China have been developing rapidly, particularly over the past three decades. Though it is impossible to tell the exact number of scholars on area studies, it can be certain that most of the specialists and researchers in the field of international studies have a focus on a certain geographical region or a country of the world.

In the United States and Europe, area studies have been subject to controversy because this category of international studies was connected to the Cold War agendas of CIA, FBI, and other intelligence and military agencies. Others say that the intellectual agenda for area studies is too broad and too comprehensive, resulting in “neither fish nor flesh”. [④] In China, however, such a controversy is seldom heard and it is widely accepted that area studies are a part of international study and the latter is a part of social science. Many people take it for granted that this interdisciplinary field of international/area studies is worth of their lifetime pursuit.

Generally speaking, area studies in China are undertaken mainly by the following categories of organizations:

1. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Established in May 1977, CASS is the most important center for research on social sciences. Out of its thirty-six research institutions, eight are for international/area studies, with a total number of more than five hundred researchers. Apart from the Institute of World Economy and Politics, the other seven institutes work on every part of the world.[⑤]

2. The provincial academies of social sciences. CASS is a national academy on a ministerial level. In addition, each province, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government has its own academy. However, the size and focus of international/area studies are varied. The coastal and/or border provinces have at least one research institute on international/area studies. For instance, Heilongjiang Province is close to Russia and Northeast Asia. So the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences has two research institutes for the study of Russia and North East Asia. The Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences in the southern part of China emphasizes area studies about Southeast Asia and South Asia. So there are two institutes for the study of these two sub-regions. Fujian Province faces the East China Sea to the east and the South China Sea to the south. Therefore, it has an institute for Asia-Pacific studies. In most of the provincial academies of social sciences in the hinterland like Guizhou Province and Qinghai Province, however, institutions on international/area studies are non-existent.

3. Universities. In the 1990s, with the unprecedented expansion of student enrollment, Chinese universities witnessed dramatic adjustments of their curricula, resulting in more emphasis on international/area studies. Not only the prestigious universities like Peking, Tsinghua, Renmin and Fudan, but also the less well-known universities and colleges have set up research centers, institutions and programs for international/area studies. Each year a great number of post-graduates choose topics of area studies for their M.A. and Ph. D. dissertations.

4. Think-tanks. In China there are many think-tanks of foreign affairs and the following institutions are the most important on area studies:

1) China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations. Of its eleven institutes, seven are about area studies: Institute of American Studies; Institute of Latin American Studies; Institute of European Studies; Institute of Japanese Studies; Institute of South Asian, Southeast Asian and Oceanian Studies; and Institute of West Asian and African Studies. [⑥]

2) China Institute of International Studies. It has seven research departments, and five of them are devoted to area studies: Department of American Studies; Department of Asia-Pacific Security and Cooperation; Department of European Studies; Department of the Developing Countries Studies; and Department of Euro-Asian Studies.[⑦]

3) Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. It has five centers for area studies as well as four institutes on general issues of international studies.[⑧] The six centers are responsible for researches on the Americas, Asia Pacific, Russia and Central Asia, Western Asia and Africa, and Europe.

III. What Is the Purpose of Area Studies in China?

The mandate of China’s scholars of area studies includes the following aspects:

1. To serve for the decision-making of the top leadership. While it is impossible to know which specific foreign policy action undertaken by the Chinese government is suggested by scholars, there is no doubt that their academic work has played an important role in advising or influencing the top leadership’s decision making. This fact can be proved by the high similarities between what the scholars have suggested in their writings and what the government has done and said on a wide range of international issues.

2. To educate the public. In a globalized world, the Chinese people also wish to acquire more knowledge of the outside world. Countless newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, etc., encourage scholars to contribute articles or participate in talk-shows explaining world news. Numerous publishing houses also want to publish books on any subject about foreign countries. The thirst for knowledge and information about world affairs provides the Chinese scholars of area studies with a golden opportunity to make full play of their talents. Some scholars who frequently appear in the China Central Television’s news channels have become quite well-known like film stars.

3. To help the business sector understand market conditions and investment environment of foreign countries. China has become increasingly integrated with the world. At the end of the 1990s, the Chinese government started to implement the “going global” strategy, encouraging enterprises to make foreign direct investment abroad. Before putting capital in a strange land, the investors need to know what kind of risks and investment environment are waiting for them. Therefore, both public and private enterprises contracted the scholars of area studies for reports on the host country’s market conditions, policies towards foreign investment, laws and regulations about paying tax, hiring labors, protecting the environment, etc.

IV. What Are the Subjects and Topics of Area Studies?

For practical purposes, most of the Chinese scholars on area studies tend to deal with current issues in the fields of politics, economic development, international relations and social problems, and most of these issues have relevance to China’s own needs.

According to the 2011 guide of applying for grant of research projects from the National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science (NPOPSS), there are forty-eight topics of research on the category of international studies, and thirteen of them are on area studies:[⑨]

—Mao Zedong’s division of the three worlds and the theory of “building a harmonious world”;

—“21st century neo-capitalism” in the United States;

—Europe’s development model in the face of the international financial crisis;

—How the United States exports its “universal values” and what are China’s counter-measures;

—Mechanism of Southeastern cooperation and safeguarding regional security;

—Future development of the China-United States relations;

—Characteristics of the China-EU relations and the future’s development;

—Adjustment of Japan’s external relations and its implication for the China-Japan relations;

—The position of the China-Russia relations in today’s world order and its prospects;

—Current situation of the China-India relations and the development tendency in the future;

—Double standards on nuclear non-proliferation and China’s relations with DPRK and Iran;

—China’s relations with Africa in the new era;

—China’s relations with Latin America in the new era.

The 2012 guide of NPOPSS had sixty-one topics and twenty-four of them were about area studies:[⑩]

—Mao Zedong’s “three world theory” and further development of China’s relations with the developing countries;

—Common interests and differences of the BRICS nations;

—The United States’ strategy of pivoting to Asia and China’s counter-measures;

—The United States’ objectives and policies towards Asia-Pacific;

—The United States’ economic situation and the movement of the U.S. dollar’s exchange rate;

—Implications of the changes of the United States’ public debt on China’s security of foreign exchange reserves;

—The importance of the East China Sea and South China Sea for China’s peaceful development;

—The importance of Indian Ocean for China’s peaceful development;

—Japan’s national strategy of development after the 2011 earthquake and Tsunami;

—Evolution of Japan’s social structure and social conciseness and its impact upon Japan’s internal and external policies;

—Development of the Korean Peninsula’s situation and China’s counter-measures;

—India’s international strategy;

—Russia’s strategic direction after Putin’s election and its strategic partnership with China;

—Russia’s Arctic policy and its implication for the region;

—Current situation, prospects and implication of the European debt crisis;

—European debt crisis, Euro and its regional integration process;

—Western powers’ policies towards Middle East and North Africa and the future transformation of the political order in these regions;

—Root causes of the political turmoil in Middle East and North Africa;

—Social transformation in the Arab world and its implications for social stability;

—Changes of the political order in the Islamic nations and its impact on China’s ethnic issues;

—United States’ development of the military sector and military invasion of other nations upon its economy and overall national strength;

—How can China expand its presence in Latin America and Africa;

—Current situation and socialist ideology in the former socialist countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe;

—Arctic and Antarctic studies.

Needless to say, Chinese scholars of area studies can have their own right and freedom to decide which subjects and topics to work on out of their own academic interest. At the same time, however, as NPOPSS is the highest office in charge of China’s research on social sciences, its yearly guide for applying for its grant can exert a great influence on what subjects and topics the Chinese scholars and academic institutions of international/area studies should choose.[11]

In addition to current affairs and practical issues, a wide range of theoretical questions are also subjects of academic interest for many Chinese scholars of area studies. Chinese scholars believe that theoretical research is an inalienable part of area studies and it is difficult to produce high-quality works without in-depth theoretical research. Neoliberalism, Neorealism, neorealism, neoimperialism, constructivism, etc., have been subjects of research for many Chinese scholars.

V. What Are the Problems for Area Studies in China?

Despite impressive progress, China’s area studies are still faced with some problems.

1. Area studies on Africa and Latin America are not given enough attention. Most of China’s area studies are about the United States, Europe and Japan. Relatively speaking, Africa and Latin America were marginal in the sense that not many scholars work on these areas and less publications have come out.

This shortcoming is easily understandable due to the following three reasons: First, China’s relations with the developed world in every field are much closer than with Africa and Latin America. Second, from television to textbooks and from bookstores to the business community, it seems that there is a greater need to know the outside world. Third, both Africa and Latin America are geographically distant.

Compared with Africa and Latin America, developing countries in Asia are given more and more attention. This is simply because they are China’s neighbors and bilateral economic relations have moved forward swiftly. For instance, the first free trade agreement China signed was with ASEAN in November 2002.

2. Opportunities of international exchanges and field studies are not frequent. An extremely small number of prominent Chinese scholars are busy with conducting field studies in foreign countries and participating in international conferences around the world. But the majority of the Chinese scholars have few opportunities to go abroad, resulting in inadequate first-hand information about the country or region they study. In other words, they mainly rely on books, journals and internet to write books and papers. This carries the danger of misunderstanding what is going on in the foreign land.

This problem should be blamed for lacking enough funds for the Chinese academic institutions and universities. After all, China is still a developing nation, and financial resources for area studies are quite limited. If the conference organizers in a foreign country cannot cover air travel and local accommodations, the Chinese scholar can hardly go. Particularly, Chinese scholars in the field of African and Latin American studies are in a more disadvantageous position compared with those who work on the United States, Europe and Japan.[12]

3. There is a language barrier for the study of some parts of the world. Language plays an important role in promoting area studies. Apart from English, Japanese, French, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese, “small” foreign languages are also taught at many universities across the nation. However, many of the graduates majoring in these “small” languages would like to find jobs in non-academic field for different reasons.[13] As a result, most of the scholars have to use English to study the non-English speaking countries.

4. Most of the publications are in Chinese. There is one more language problem. In absolute terms, China’s populations of scholars on area studies must be the largest one in the world. Every month or every year, they produce a huge amount of books, papers, articles, reports, etc.[14] It is true that many of these publications are of high quality by international standards. But they are in Chinese, not in English or any other foreign languages. This creates the problem like “a lone flower admiring its own beauty”.

5. Integration of theory and practice is sometimes not appropriately balanced. Some scholars seldom apply theories for their research work. Therefore, their publications are just an introduction to the area/country’s politics, economy, foreign diplomacy, etc. In other words, there is a lack of an in-depth theoretical approach to the problems they explore.

At the same time, there are some scholars who tend to blindly “borrow” theories invented by foreign scholars. Consequently, their publications are full of strange terminologies, abstract concepts and elusive meanings.

Still others try to conciliate theory and practice. But sometimes the result is what many Chinese scholars call “two skins”, meaning that theory and practice never mingle in the real sense.

Concluding Remarks

In China area studies are included in international studies. In a globalized world, with deepening reforms and opening to the outside world, China finds it highly necessary to gain a better understanding of the world. Area studies have served this purpose.

Chinese scholars of area studies are found mainly in the CASS, some provincial academies, most of the universities and the think-tanks, among others. Their tasks are to serve the decision-making process of the top leadership, meet the general public’s thirst of knowledge about world affairs and offer a helping hand for the enterprises wishing to make direct investment in or trade with foreign countries.

In order to further promote China’s area studies, it is necessary to deal with the following problems: 1) Area studies on Africa and Latin America are not given enough attention; 2) Opportunities of international exchanges and field studies are not frequent; 3) There is a language barrier for the study of some parts of the world; 4) Most of the publications are in Chinese; and 5) Integration of theory and practice is sometimes not appropriately balanced.

The Ministry of Education’s recent call for strengthening area studies and the CASS’s implementation of the “Innovation Project for Social Science Research” will create a better environment and more incentives to advance area studies in China in the future.

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