User:Xiaolu shi/sandbox

In China, due to the lack of communication between China and the United States since the communist party took up the power in 1949, the Chinese recognition of the U.S. was still limited to the communist political propaganda of the Cold War at the time when the two countries established the diplomatic relationship. Therefore, since the Sino-U.S. relationship was normalized in 1979, various research centers have been founded within Chinese universities in order to meet up to the needs of understanding the U.S. Thus, most of the prestigious American Studies centers in China established around 1980s, such as American Studies Center (Beijing Foreign Studies University) in 1979, the Institute of American Studies (Chinese Academy of Social Science) in 1981, Center For American Studies (Fudan University) in 1985, American Studies Center (Peking University) in 1980, Center for American Studies (Tongji University), American Studies Center (Sichuan University) in 1985, Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in 1986, American Social and Cultural Studies Center (China Foreign Affairs University) and Center for American Studies (East China Normal University) in 2004. These centers do not have undergraduate programs. Based on the requirement of the curriculum setup of the China Department of Education, these centers only have graduate programs. In addition, there are also scholarly journals, such as American Studies Quarterly, set up in 1987 and organized by both the Institute of American Studies of Academy of Social Science and the Chinese Association of American Studies, and Fudan American Review organized by the Center of American Studies of Fudan University.

The American Studies in the U.S. is different from the American Studies in China. The former focuses more on one aspect, which is “civilization”; and the latter includes almost every aspects of the U.S., among which the civilization is just a constituent (Ye 207). Take the curriculum in the American Studies program in Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) as an example. The American Studies program in BFSU is not only the oldest one but also the one in which all courses taught in English from the beginning of its founding. To help the students lay a comprehensive and interdisciplinary grounding in American Studies, the current ASC curriculum, made up of 28 courses, centers on three major areas: 1) American Government and Diplomacy, 2) American Society and Culture, 3) American Economy and Trade. In addition, there have been short courses and seminars offered by guest speakers from home and abroad to broaden the students’ horizon for better understanding of America. . Every master student is required to choose one of the three major areas as his or her study track and chooses the courses accordingly.

The affiliation of each center decides its different research focuses, although sometimes they have some study overlapping. According to the affiliations, these centers can be generally divided into two groups. The one, affiliated to the international relations department, academically tends to focus on U.S. politics, economy, law and diplomacy. The diploma conferred is the Politics. While the other, to the foreign language department, usually concentrate more on racial/gender issues, literature, religion, education, history and culture. The diploma conferred is English Language and Literature. For example, the American Studies Center of BFSU belongs to the School of English and International Studies, and the Center of American Studies of Fudan University is administered by the Institute of International Studies.

The researches on different areas are not equally developed. The researches on economy, politics and foreign policy have been much more developed than that on American culture and thoughts. Out of the all articles from the year of 1987 to 2008 published in American Studies Quarterly, the ones, which deal with the Sino-U.S. relations including American foreign diplomacy, foreign commerce and military policies and strategies, accounts for 50.9%. Whereas, the articles, which have its topics on literature, history, gender, intellectual history, philosophy and culture, only take up about 20% (Ye 207). However, with the accelerating academic exchange between two countries, more and more students are coming to the U.S. to study American Studies and at the same time American Studies scholars coming to China to do researches and teaching.