The concept of “New Studies of Chinese Culture” is brought forward on the basis of “Studies of Chinese Culture”.
The “Studies of Chinese Culture” is an academic concept put forward to differentiate between the Chinese learning and western learning after the introduction of western culture into China. Earlier, bureaucrat Zhang Zhidong, one of the advocators of the westernization movement advanced “Chinese Learning”, which mainly refers to the traditional Chinese Confucian ethics and morality doctrine, while the “Studies of Chinese Culture” advocated by Zhang Taiyan is the generic term of ancient learning, including various kinds of academic studies like Chinese ancient philosophy, literature, Chinese Character Study, phonology etc, among which philosophy further includes different doctrines such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and hundred schools of thought. After the May Fourth new cultural movement, in order to differentiate between “Studies of Chinese Culture” and “Quintessence of Chinese Culture”, Mr. Hu Shi once defined “Studies of Chinese Culture” as “Chinese Sinology”, which on one hand enlarged the scope of the concept “Studies of Chinese Culture” by incorporating the research on Chinese ancient pop-culture, bronze inscriptions, and oracle into “Studies of Chinese Culture”; on the other hand, this concept emphasized the reorganizing and studying of Chinese ancient historical and cultural data. However, Hu Shi’s definition is still about the studies of Chinese ancient culture and history, exclusive of the new history and new culture appeared and developed after the May Fourth new cultural movement. After 1949, only Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas Chinese cultural circles still kept on using this academic concept and the academic circles of China’s Mainland has basically stopped using it. As a result, Chinese learning and scholars in China’s mainland lost their integrity, and the internal contradictions and differences have developed to a point that either one can resolve. It was not until after the Cultural Revolution did the concept ever again appear and become widely used in the academic circles of China’s Mainland. Up till now, it still follows the original usage, namely, it is still the generic term of the studies of Chinese ancient history and culture.
However, the birth of the academic concept “Studies of Chinese Culture” marked a century for Chinese history and Chinese culture. The history and culture in this century, despite the influence from foreign culture, was mainly independently created by Chinese people, especially Chinese intellectuals. Thus it requires us to know and to do a thorough research. That is to say, Chinese modern history and modern culture started at that time are still a part of it, which undoubtedly should be incorporated into the generic academic concept ——“Studies of Chinese Culture”. The so called “New Studies of Chinese Culture” is complementary rather than contradictory to each other. It includes not only the reorganizing and studying of both ancient and modern Chinese history and cultural data, but the translation, introduction, reorganizing and studying of foreign history and cultural data by Chinese scholars. Moreover, the research on realistic practices and theories was also incorporated into the scope of this academic concept in an effort to make “Studies of Chinese Culture” an independent and holistic academic concept covering all the fruits scored in the Chinese academic history.
The journal ——“New Studies of Chinese Culture Research” is aimed at reconstructing the holistic concept of Chinese learning, based on which we can undertake academic research in different fields, different disciplines, and different majors more actively and effectively. The “New Studies of Chinese Culture” doesn’t exclude any valuable research fruit or fruits that were achieved based on the original concept. Our purpose is to interpret, understand and apply the fruits by incorporating the fruits into the “New Studies of Chinese Culture”, a bigger academic whole, making it organically integrated into the nation’s academic whole. The “New Studies of Chinese Culture” doesn’t deny the necessity of academic competition and discussion, whose purpose is not to tell which wins or which loses, but to deepen the understanding of each concept, enrich and develop the whole nation’s academic undertaking. No articles found in the journal are published as samples of this academic concept. Instead, it just provides a platform where various of research findings can be published. Its all-inclusiveness and rigidity reflect our concrete understanding of this academic concept ——“New Studies of Chinese Culture”.
The Journal mainly publishes long academic papers between 20,000 and 120,000 characters, which is not our preference. Since a majority of the current academic journals mainly publish papers under 20,000 characters while the academic works published by publishing houses generally exceed 120,000 characters, which makes long academic papers between 20,000 and 120,000 characters little opportunity to be published. As a result, it causes the singularity of academic styles to a certain degree. We hope the academic styles will enjoy more freedom and diversification.
Due to lack of staff, the Journal only publishes contributions for the time being.
The Journal is founded with the leadership of Shantou University and the great support of Li Kashing Foundation. Hereby, we’d like to extend our sincere gratitude to them.