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The Crisis in the Humanities and ‘Invented Tradition’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2016

Zhou Xian
Zhou Xian*
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanjing University, Hankou Road 22, Nanjing, 210093China. E-mail: zhouxian@nju.edu.cn
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Abstract

The crisis of the humanities in higher education has been around for some time. Over the years, concerns regarding this crisis have spread extensively. To the optimist, such a crisis presents new opportunities and challenges; to the pessimist, old practices die hard. In fact, the crisis of the humanities in Chinese academic circles has yet to attract proper attention and discussion. If we think of the past 30 years, it is clear that higher education in China faces this crisis, with the various instances of poisonings and murders amongst Chinese students being a further indicator of its seriousness. Thus, despite differences in its manifestation throughout various countries, it seems that the crisis of the humanities is a worldwide phenomenon. Below, I will discuss three sets of problems in order to explore some possible solutions to this crisis.

Type
Tsinghua–Academia Europaea Symposium on Humanities and Social Sciences, Globalization and China
Information
European Review , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , May 2016 , pp. 243 - 252
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2016 

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