About Us

INTRODUCTION AND COURSE INFORMATION
DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LITERATURE
TUNGHAI UNIVERSITY

I. MISSION AND HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT:

The Department of Chinese Literature was the first established academic department when the Tunghai University was founded in 1955. At the time, it was one of the two universities in Taiwan. After several decades of cultural and political turmoil in Mainland China, the establishment of Chinese Literature Department in Tunghai University had the significance of realigning intellectuals exiled from Mainland China to Taiwan, in considering the inheritance of Chinese cultural heritage and the recreation of new legacy for posterity. In 1970, the Graduate Institute of Chinese Literature was established to provide master’s program which offers Master of Arts (MA) degree. The Graduate Institute has commenced its doctoral program offering Ph.D. degree from 1985. In 2005, an in-service Master’s program was set for the purpose of cooperating with the government's policy of promoting higher education, balancing regional academic development, and encouraging in-service training of teachers in elementary and middle schools systems as well as the general public, providing them with multi-access channel of learning.

Through decades of efforts, the Department has already built a fine tradition of scholarship and disciplinary learning. The Department is well-known for encouraging our students to become versatile through cross-discipline and cross-cultural approach of learning. The Department also has long term reputation for immersing students with liberal arts spirit and at the same time providing them with professional instruction in creative writing. Many of our students and graduates hence have earned important writing awards and have become respected writers full with humanistic concern.

II. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:

The Department respects specialties of our faculties and encourages them to cultivate and stimulate students according to students’ talents and interests.  Dedicative teaching and active counseling provided by our faculty members are one of the many important factors of the Department’s excellences. For facilitating our students with essential knowledge and skills of the discipline, compulsory courses covering major fields of study in the discipline are offered. Elective courses of various subjects are also provided for selection. Students can make their selections according to their choice of field-of-focus choosing from the following four sub-disciplines, “Classical Literature", "Modern and Contemporary Literature", "Languages", and "Thoughts".

The educational philosophy of the Department is: 
1. Put equal emphasis on tradition and renovation, encourage renovation from the context of tradition
2. Promote inter-cultural learning scope and encourage cultural creativities
3. Learn through classical texts and grow from interpreting the classical texts 
4.  Concern on cultural development and devote to the needs of local communities

Through above educational philosophy, the Department aims to help our students to become versatile intellectuals full with enthusiasm, ideals, and self-confidence.

EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
Doctoral and Master’s Program: 
To establish the scholarship of professional teaching and academic research in the discipline
Undergraduate program: 
To cultivate the competencies of the discipline and evoke humanistic concern

CORE COMPETENCIES:
Doctoral and Master’s Program: 
(1) Capability in interpreting and analyzing both classical and modern Chinese literary texts 
(2) Capability in doing independent studies in related academic subject areas 
(3) Capability in acquiring sinology materials and create dialogue with the materials

In-service Master’s Program: 
(1) Capability in interpreting and analyzing ancient and modern Chinese literary texts
(2) Capability in teaching and researching within the subject of Chinese literature   
(3) Capability in humanistic concern and language application

Undergraduate Program:  
(1) Capability in appreciating Chinese literature 
(2) Capability in Chinese language expression and critical thinking 
(3) Capability in humanistic literacy and cultural concern 

III. FEATURES:
i. Balanced development of four scholarly groups: Based on the specialties and future development directions of our faculty members, the Department sets four learning groups, i.e. “Classical Literature", "Modern Literature", "Languages", and "Thoughts". One of the duties of each group is to be responsible for planning and promoting academic activities. On the aspect of teaching, the Department emphasizes on study of literature and writing training, so that the students can apply their knowledge and lay their foundation for further studies. Courses provided are designed to put equal importance among all four groups.

ii.Comprehensive undergraduate-level education: In addition to various classical and modern literature courses, for concerned with current academic trends and for developing students’ professional skills, courses such as the following are provided: Taiwanese Literature, Taiwan Aboriginese Literature, Western Literary Criticism, Introduction to Western Literature, Feminist Literature, Popular Literature, Contemporary Chinese Literature, Garden Appreciation: Literature and Aesthetics, Children’s Literature, Classical Drama and Contemporary Theatre, Practical Writings, Technique of Creative Writing, and Journalistic Writing. For fulfilling another objective in helping students to be well prepared for pursuing further academic training, other than basic courses of Sinology Research Methodology, History of Chinese Literature, Selected Readings on Poetry, Selected Readings on Lyrics, Chinese Script, Historical Chinese Phonology, Historical Chinese Semantics, advanced courses are also provided. The undergraduate program aims to help students in achieving either an academic career or professional career.

iii. Providing rigorous postgraduate training: The Graduate Institute aims to cultivate students’ capabilities of professional and academic career. Other than put an emphasis on training of research methods, with required courses of “Advanced English”, the Graduate Institue aims to strengthening the language abilities and inter-cultural vision of our master’s program students. For the doctoral program students, “Non-English Foreign Language Literature” is set as a requirement for the same purpose. Various kinds of elective courses, such as Classical Literature, Literary History, Classical Studies and other monographic studies, are provided to meet with student’s academic interest.  For profound academic training, advanced courses are also offered, such as Literary Criticism, the Mid and Late Tung Poetry, Ching Poetry, Literary Creation, Taiwanese Poetry, Children Literature, Special Topics on Novel, Oracle Bones Inscriptions, Bronze Inscriptions, Cognitive Poetics, Metaphor Theory, Lexicology, Buddhism, Wei-Chin Metaphysics, Inter-Arts Studies, Cross-cultural Studies, and more. With these special courses, the School is well-distinguished from Chinese Literature Institute of other universities.

iv. Integrated literature, history and philosophy courses: Besides elective courses provided by the graduate school, doctoral students can also apply for independent study on various topics based on their needs. Since 2010, for the purpose of enhancing interdisciplinary research ability of graduates, the Graduate School has developed an integrated vision of literature, history and philosophy and started cooperation with other disciplines in establishing “Joint Thesis Presentation of Graduate Students in Literature, History and Philosophy Departments. "

v. Recruiting outstanding scholars actively: To enrich the academic research atmosphere of our institution, the Department not only invites well-known scholars world-wide to come to our institution for academic lectures, but also establishes “Short-term Lectures” and other teaching programs of honorary professors, visiting professors, short-term visiting scholars, and distinguished alumni.  

vi. Organizing academic conferences continuously: International and national academic conferences are held annually and thesis presentation of the department’s full-time faculties is held monthly. A famous series of academic conference -- “The Chinese Culture and Literature Conference”, has been held annually for 24 sessions. All symposiums of this conference are published by well-known press in Taiwan.

vii. Promoting academic research capabilities of graduate students:The School encourages graduate students to publish their theses. Besides holding “Thesis Presentation of Graduate Students in Central Taiwan” jointly with Chinese Institutes of all universities in Central Taiwan annually, another well-known conference, “Singing of Phoenix: Thesis Presentation on Chinese Language and Literature by Graduate Students Nation-wide” , is also held every year jointly with National Taiwan University and Soochow University etc.

viii. Publishing academic journals regularly: Academic journal Tunghai Journal of Chinese Literature is published annually. The journal is open to the academic circle and the submitted papers are strictly peer-reviewed by experts in relevant areas.