Sinology at a Crossroads?

A View from Britain

Abstract

This article examines the current condition and future prospects of Sinology in Britain against the backdrop of renewed Sino-scepticism, declining foreign-language study, and shifting institutional priorities in higher education. Taking recent reports on academic freedom and the state of Chinese Studies as its point of departure, it situates the apparent crisis of the field within a longer history of British Sinology, from small, language- and philology-based programmes to the rise of disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and area-studies frameworks. The article argues that falling student numbers, the marginalisation of full-time Chinese Studies degrees, the division between modern and pre-modern China, and the proliferation of loosely defined “China centres” all point to deeper structural tensions rather than a simple failure of recruitment. It further reflects on the changing profile of graduate students, the role of native speakers of Chinese, and the pressures placed on small departments to serve broader institutional agendas without adequate investment. Against calls for indiscriminate expansion or purely modular provision, the article defends the continuing necessity of rigorous language-based training and research through primary sources in Chinese. It concludes that the academy still needs Sinologists, though not necessarily in large numbers, because there are no shortcuts to globalising the humanities or to understanding China in its historical, linguistic, and cultural particularity. 

本文以英國為考察視域，探討了當代漢學在對華認知審慎、外語教育危機及高校體制轉型等多重語境下的現實處境。文章系統回顧了英國漢學從傳統的語言文獻訓練向區域研究、跨學科化及“中國中心”範式演進的歷史脈絡，並指出當前面臨的學生規模萎縮、學科碎片化與資源錯配等困境，難以僅憑學科擴張予以消解。研究強調，漢學的核心價值始終在於紮實的語言訓練、古典文獻精研以及對複雜中國問題的細密把握；在全球化人文學科的演進中，學術深耕並無捷徑可尋。