The paperback edition of Ziran has just been announced! Exam, desk, and review copies are available if you are considering adopting or reviewing it.

A colleague wrote to me asking about acquiring Chinese-language books (he was asking especially about Zhu Xi, but it’s a more general issue) from within the US. Until the pandemic I travelled often enough to China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong that I was able to pick things up there, and have never ordered from the US. Does anyone have good (or bad) experiences to share?

Dear friends,

Thanks to your support, since it was launched in 2011, the MA and Visiting programs in Chinese philosophy (with courses taught in English) at Fudan have been extremely successful. In spite of the pandemic that has seriously affected the enrollment, 121 students have been enrolled in either the M.A. program (101 students) and the visiting student program (20 students). They are from 38 countries (the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Barbados, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Australia, the U.K., Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Russia, Israel, Turkey, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh, and Gambia, with student from North America and Europe forming the majority of the student body), and many of them are top students in their classes, majoring in philosophy, classics, and/or East Asian or Chinese studies. The above facts make these programs simply the most successful of their kind (English-based post-graduate programs in Chinese philosophy) in mainland China.

The program boasts perhaps the largest community of English-speaking postgraduate students interested in Chinese philosophy in the world, a community our students have enjoyed greatly. The comprehensiveness and specialization of our curriculum in Chinese philosophy are unmatched by other programs. We have also assigned tutors to our students, helping them read classical Chinese texts, in addition to the normal language classes. Because of the number and the quality of our students, our programs are a “favorite” of the university administration. As a result, we have been EXTREMELY successful at securing fellowships for students applying for the MA program. (For the visiting student program, only partial fellowships are available through Fudan, but students can apply through some external channels, like the Chinese Scholarship Council, the EU, Chinese consulates, Confucius Institutes, etc..) One additional piece of good news is that students were already allowed into China, and given the recent development, the international travels to and from China should become normal in Fall 2023.

To continue its success, I ask you to help us to distribute the information about the programs and encourage your students to apply. If they are already in a doctoral program and wish to spend a year in China, they are also welcome. I’ll attach a flier to this email. You can also directly go to the following website for more detailed information: https://iso.fudan.edu.cn/isoenglish/41/98/c16952a475544/page.htm

Thank you, and be safe and well!

Happy Holidays!

Tongdong