The study of China is not only the study of historical China, but also the study of contemporary China. With the deepening of exchanges and integration between China and the world, the study of China in the world has increasingly become a "prominent learning", which has made academic contributions to show the world a more authentic, three-dimensional and comprehensive China, and effectively promote the Chinese road, Chinese ideas, and Chinese propositions. On November 24, 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the World Conference on Chinese Studies · Shanghai Forum, putting forward the important requirements of "continuously promoting the study of world Chinese studies, promoting the exchange and mutual learning of civilizations, and injecting ideological and cultural power into the prosperity of the world's civilized gardens". Facing the future, the research of Chinese studies in the world has broad prospects and great prospects. Researchers should pay more attention to deepening research from the perspectives of respecting the diversity of civilizations, addressing global challenges, and promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, so as to provide new ideas and enlightenment for the inheritance, development, and innovation of different civilizations, contribute more wisdom to promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind, and answer the questions of China, the world, and the people The question of the times makes more contributions.

With the increasing attention and research on China around the world, the world's Chinese studies have achieved fruitful results. From the perspective of research subjects, the regions where Chinese studies are carried out are expanding, and there are scholars studying Chinese studies in South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, etc. From the perspective of academic exchange platforms, some international academic exchange platforms focusing on Chinese studies have grown and become important media for communication between China and foreign countries, such as Harvard China Forum abroad, the World Conference on Chinese Studies, the World Conference of Sinologists, and the International Conference on "Understanding China" in China. In terms of research fields, the research results are more refined. For example, the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences has set up a research room to study Chinese contemporary ideology. From the perspective of research, it has expanded from the past history and literature research to many practical fields in contemporary China, such as economy, culture, society and ecological environment. China in the new era gives birth to the study of China in the new era. Compared with the past, the world's study of China has shown the following development trends.

It is more global, developing from western Chinese studies to world Chinese studies. Since the new era, western Chinese studies in the traditional sense are accelerating to move towards world Chinese studies, becoming a truly "cosmopolitan" knowledge. In addition to the traditional European and American research center, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, Tanzania, Tunisia and other countries with weak previous Chinese studies have a large number of experts and scholars starting to focus on China for research. Especially in the countries jointly building the "Belt and Road", a number of Chinese studies research institutions have been established. These new research forces constantly innovate research methods, bring new academic ideas, and inject new vitality into the prosperity and development of Chinese studies. This is mainly reflected in the research perspective of "jumping out of China to see China". Before that, both European Sinology and American Sinology were generally studying "China of China", or studying Chinese civilization based on ancient books, or exploring China's path from internal development, or discussing bilateral and multilateral relations with China. Since the new era, an obvious academic turn has been to focus on "China of the world", understand the Chinese civilization, Chinese road and its world significance from the dimensions of global history, world economy and international order, and the global impact of China's development, the world impact of Chinese modernization, etc. have become hot areas of research.

Pay more attention to countermeasures and expand from traditional social science research to think tank research. With the continuous enhancement of China's comprehensive national strength and the increasingly close ties between China and other countries in the world, think tank experts have gradually become an important group for countries to study China. Especially in the countries jointly building the "Belt and Road", a large number of experts have studied the economic and trade relations, strategic cooperation between China and their own countries, and the practical enlightenment of the Chinese road on their own development. Many of these research results directly serve the policies of the host country. Chinese studies, which are considered as "think tanks", are significantly different from traditional studies in terms of methods and thinking concepts. Traditional Chinese studies are more subordinate to the humanities and social sciences, and more emphasis on the effectiveness of theory; The "think tank" Chinese studies focus on solving practical problems, and the target audience is policy makers. More empirical, interdisciplinary and comprehensive studies will make it easier to get rid of the narrative of Western Chinese studies, and more conducive to understanding real China from specific practice.

More emphasis on independence, from the tendency of western centralism to more objective and rational research. The traditional study of China is influenced by Western centralism, so it is easy to study China on the scale of European and American historical experience. Some studies take it for granted that what conforms to the path of China and the West is progressive, whereas the opposite is backward and needs to be changed. These studies have fallen into a crisis of self consistency. At the same time, a large number of Chinese experts from developing countries and the young generation from other countries no longer fully accept the established views of western research, and their understanding of China is more comprehensive and objective. In particular, "Generation Z" is becoming the main force for countries to pursue Chinese studies related degrees, and they are more willing to understand the real China. After getting rid of the shadow of Western centralism, the study of China in the world has shown a more open trend. More and more experts and scholars have begun to understand China objectively and rationally, and the voice of affirming China is growing.

Pay more attention to the future, extending from taking China as the target to taking China as the method. China studies is a branch of national and regional studies abroad. Because of the richness and complexity of the research objects, country and regional studies can often find the problems and shortcomings of western orthodox theories, and then develop new theories facing the future. Driven by the initiative of jointly building the "Belt and Road", the study of China in the new era shows a future turn. The core point of this turn is that the western road is no longer the only way to modernize human society, and there is no longer a universally applicable modernization standard. Some foreign scholars have begun to explore a new prospect facing the future, different from the western modernization development model, from the Chinese road, Chinese experience and Chinese programs. They see China's development as an opportunity to promote their own industrialization and modernization. It can be said that exploring the beneficial enlightenment of domestic development from the Chinese road is becoming a hot topic in some countries. Many scholars are studying China to better understand themselves, the world, the pulse of the times, and future trends.

(Author's unit: World Institute of Chinese Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)

People's Daily (April 29, 2024, version 09)

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