From April 15 to 17, the Seventh Annual Conference and Academic Seminar of the Teaching Research Association (TRA) of the Chinese Society of Comparative Literature (CSCL) was successfully held in Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai (BNU Zhuhai). This conference was co-hosted by TRA of CSCL and BNU, and co-organized by the Chinese Department of Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), BNU, and School of Chinese Language and Literature (SCLL) BNU. It was held online on Tencent Meeting and other platforms for live streaming. More than 230 professors and postgraduates were invited, who came from more than 90 universities, including BNU, Peking University (PKU), Renmin University of China (RUC), Fudan University (FDU), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), Nankai University (NKU), East China Normal University (ECNU), Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), Tianjin Normal University (TNU), Fujian Normal University (FNU), South China Normal University (SCNU), Xiangtan University (XTU), Henan University (HNU), Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) and Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST). This seminar was also one of the academic activities celebrating the 120th birthday of BNU.
The preview and agenda of the conference was posted on more than 10 Wechat official accounts and 1 H5 mini-program in advance, receiving almost 10,000 clicks within a few days. The opening ceremony, closing ceremony and keynote address were all live streamed on three platforms (Xueshuzhi, Zhuhai Yun and Tencent Meeting), with more than 160,000 persons having watched the seminar.
The main topic of this annual conference was “Curriculum and Teaching of Comparative Literature from the Perspective of New Liberal Arts”. According to it, nine sub-topics were decided: “Ideological and Political Education in Comparative Literature”, “Teaching and Learning of Classical Works in Primary and Secondary Schools from the Perspective of Comparative Literature”, “World Literature Teaching: Cross-Cultural Practice in the Era of Globalization”, “Inheritance and Innovation of Comparative Literature Textbooks”, “Digital Humanities and Innovation of Comparative Literature Courses and Teaching”, “Improvement of Humanistic Values in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau and the Development of Comparative Literature”, “Comparative Literature and Cross-Cultural Research: Theory and Practice” and “Research on Area Studies from the Perspective of Comparative Literature”. These topics received considerable attention from academia and media. Comparative literature is able to lead the reform of liberal arts teaching and talents cultivation with an open mind and creative thinking under the background of constructing new liberal arts, owing to its inter-disciplinary features; in the meantime, comparative literature that combines Chinese and foreign literature has irreplaceable significance on better telling China’s stories to the world and increasing cross-cultural communication under the background of globalization.
On the morning of April 16, Professor Yao Jianbin, Vice President and Secretary-General of TRA of CSCL and Dean of Chinese Department of FAS, BNU, hosted the opening ceremony. He extended a warm welcome and sincere thankfulness to the guests’ presence and support. He also briefly introduced the association and paid tribute to Professor Le Daiyun and Professor Chen Dun.
Professor Yao Jianbin hosts the opening ceremony
Professor Zheng Guomin, Assistant to the President of BNU, introduced the development of BNU Zhuhai and pointed out that the Zhuhai campus plays an important role in BNU’s development strategy of “One University, Two Campuses”. He fully acknowledged the achievements of the Chinese Department of FAS, as well as the academic value and practical significance of this conference. In addition, he welcomed scholars from around the world to host academic activities in beautiful BNU Zhuhai.
Professor Zheng Guomin delivers remarks
Professor Chen Dun, the founding President of TRA of CSCL, fully acknowledged the work done by the association and the significance of the topics discussed in this conference. He further highlighted the value and function of comparative literature from the meaningful perspective of national development strategies and building a global community of shared future. Professor Cao Shunqing, Vice Chairman of Teaching Steering Committee of Chinese, Chinese Ministry of Education, introduced the committee work and hoped to strengthen the cooperation in curriculum, teaching, and professional research on comparative literature. He thought the annual conference was significant to cross-cultural communication and the cultivation of talents with a cross-cultural mindset. Ye Shumian, President of CSCL, stressed the crucial role and increasing significance of comparative literature in leading the reform of liberal arts under the background of constructing new liberal arts and globalization. He also combined some cutting-edge questions to emphasize ideological and political education as well as cultural awareness.
Professor Chen Dun delivers remarks
Professor Ye Shuxian delivers remarks
Professor Wang Lijun, Dean of SCLL, BNU, reviewed the long history and looked forward to the future development of SCLL and its Department of Comparative Literature and World Literature (CLWL). He highly acknowledged the contributions of CLWL in SCLL’s construction of world-class Chinese subjects and considered this annual conference as an important one that responds to trends and invites interaction and conversation among different cultures.
Professor Wang Lijun delivers remarks
Liu Hongtao, Director-general of TRA of CSCL, gave his speech at last. He reviewed the 27-year history and summarized the good traditions of the association; he highlighted that comparative literature gains significant opportunities and resources from transformations in national strategies, academic subjects and educational information technology; he also believed that the mission of the association in this era is to connect academic subjects to the outside world by taking part more actively in the Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of a global community of shared future, as well as making contributions to national rejuvenation with the unique and important power of comparative literature.
Professor Liu Hongtao delivers remarks
The conference included four rounds of keynote speeches, with 16 professors taking turns to address the main topics. As for theoretical questions in comparative literature, Professor Yang Huilin from RUC explained the importance of thinking tools used to replace, retell and reconstruct culture, citing the example of Chinese and western people’s different explanations about “Chinalization”. Professor Cao Shunqing from Sichuan University/BNU gave a theoretical analysis on whether to compare or not in comparative literature, while Professor Yang Naiqiao critically warned the audience of the far-fetched comparison.
Professor Yang Huilin delivers the keynote speech
Professor Cao Shunqing delivers the keynote speech
In terms of comparative literature and world literature, Professor Song Binhui from SISU proposed the possibility and methods of genealogical analysis in world literature, according to the geographical distribution of world languages and their history of them. Professor Liu Hongtao stressed the importance to integrate world literature research into comparative literature research. Professor Hao Lan from TNU analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of “new world literature”.
The relationship between digital humanity and comparative literature is another question that deserves attention under the background of new liberal arts construction and the fast development of digital devices and AI. Professor Wang Ning from SJTU appreciated the role digital humanity plays in humanistic academic research. Professor Chen Yuehong introduced in details the practices and experiences of developing new liberal arts education in his university.
Professor Wang Ning delivers the keynote speech
When it comes to teaching methods, textbook design and talent cultivation of comparative literature, professors like Gao Xudong from RUC, Liu Yunhua from FDU, Yao Jianbin, Fan Jin from ECNU, and Lin Jinghua from Capital Normal University voiced their unique opinions as well.
Professor Chen Rongnv delivers comments
17 Seminars about 9 sub-topics and two keywords of “curriculum” and “teaching “were held on the afternoon of April 16 and the morning of April 17 in 9 different Tencent Meeting rooms. Scholars shared teaching experiences and research inspiration as well as proposed incisive viewpoints and applicable teaching examples. According to new teaching situations in universities in the process of globalization and the post-pandemic era, they profoundly discussed with each other about designing new textbooks, innovating the systems of curriculum, implementing ideological and political education, and exploring curriculum theory. At the same time, they gave valuable opinions on changing teaching ideologies of comparative literature from the perspective of new liberal arts, teaching reform and cultivation of students’ humanistic quality, new digital-media-based teaching methods, and application of teaching research results. These all provided farsightedness and new ideas for reform and innovation of comparative literature curriculum and teaching from the perspective of new liberal arts.
Professor Zhao Weirong hosts the 3rd keynote speech
In addition, a postgraduate forum was established in this annual conference. On the evening of April 16, more than 50 postgraduates from well-known domestic universities participated in the discussion in 5 Tencent Meeting rooms. They gave various and innovative opinions, ranging from profound analysis of comparative literature theory to the explanation of literary phenomenon and works based on comparative literature theory. The forum displayed not only the latest results in the teaching and research of comparative literature from the perspective of new liberal arts, but also the overall research ability of postgraduates majoring in comparative literature and the great attraction of this subject to them. Newly-elected Director-Generals acted as hosts and judges in the forum respectively, assuring the quality of seminars and strengthening the interaction between students and scholars.
Online group photo of postgraduates
On the evening of April 15, the 7th conference of standing directors and members of the association was held. Professor Yao Jianbin was voted as the Deputy Director-general, Professor Ji Jianxun as the standing director. 33 other directors were also elected.
The closing ceremony was held on the afternoon of April 17, hosted by Professor Liu. Representatives from each Tencent Meeting room gave a wonderful summary of their seminars. Participants reached the consensus that the discussion topics in this conference is significant to helping comparative literature cross subject borders, promoting its curriculum and teaching systems to innovate and develop, and cultivating high-quality and international talents. Then Professor Hao, one of the hosts in the coming 8th Annual Conference of 2025, acknowledged the successful results of this conference and expected a reunion with participants three years later.
Professor Hao Lan delivers closing address
Online group photo
This conference attracted attention on many domestic media. Apart from the BNU official website, Wechat official accounts and official Weibo, Xinhua Net, People’s Daily Online, Social Sciences in China, Guang Ming Daily, Red Net, Mango TV, Nan Fang Daily , Yang Cheng Evening News , New Express , CNR, China Culture Daily , Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, websites of Tencent, Wangyi and Xinlang also reported on the popularity and shining points of this conference.