Global academic interest in China has grown since reform and opening up
China witnessed the largest scale of overseas returnees since the 18th CPC National Congress, creating a more profound talent pool for Chinese philosophy and social sciences.
The rapid economic growth in the past four decades has led China to be a middle- or upper middle-income country whereas it was once categorized in the low-income group. In the field of social science research, the study of Chinese issues has gradually come to the fore while becoming more systematic and open in particular since the 18th CPC National Congress. Furthermore, these studies are reaching a higher level of internationalization as they touch upon Chinese issues more extensively and profoundly, accounting for a growing proportion in world academic publications for social sciences.
In order to understand the development of overseas research on China, in particular the English-speaking world, the authors searched for papers of this kind—excluding psychological topic—that were published between 1978 and 2017 on the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) and outlined the studies with keywords including “China” or “Chinese” in English social science journals over the past four decades. The statistical results may slightly deviate from actual circumstances as authors’ nationalities were barely categorized in early years. However, its impact is not significant for examining the overall trend.
Statistical data shows that the yearly number of SSCI papers on China has surged in the 40 years. It grew from 256 to more than 1,000 each during the period from 1978 to 1997 and it exceeded 2,000 in 2006. The growth started to accelerate in 2012. More than 10,000 SSCI theses about China were published in 2016 and the number hit 11,000 last year. The amount of SSCI theses about China has grown fortyfold, showing an increasing level of internationalization and expanding academic attention from the international community.
The mounting global interest can also be shown in the increase in the number of countries and regions publishing research papers on Chinese issues. Only 18 countries and regions published papers on China between 1978 and 1984 while the number reached 172 from 2012 to 2017, covering a majority of countries and regions in the world.
The voices of Chinese scholars have grown in global academia because of the development of social sciences in China. They published few SSCI theses in early days due to language barriers and a lack of international exchanges, so their American counterparts dominated the field at that time. No more than 10 published articles about China were written by Chinese scholars annually between 1978 and 1984, one-fourth the amount published by American research fellows. However, domestic research quality of social sciences improved in tandem with the country’s rising overall strength. Also, Chinese scholars embraced more opportunities to exchange with their foreign fellows. In this context, they published more articles on China in foreign journals and the situation has improved enormously since the dawn of the 21st century. More than 300 papers written by Chinese scholars were issued in 2001. In terms of scale, China ranked first in 2007 for the first time after surpassing the United States. Last year, the number of papers written by Chinese scholars hit 7,500, tripling that of their American counterparts. Meanwhile, two out of three theses on China were completed by Chinese scholars.
As Chinese scholars become increasingly involved in international academia, more foreign research professionals are choosing to carry out collaborative studies with them and write articles on Chinese issues together. Researchers mainly from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom did so between 1978 and 1984 while scholars from 114 countries and regions published SSCI papers on China together with Chinese scholars in 2017.
The number of citations is a standard metric for the academic influence of an academic paper. The total citation number of theses on China reflects their position in the field. Chinese theses published in the mid-1990s were cited for about 1,000 times so far, one-third of that of the United States and it outnumbered the United States for the first time in 2007. The total citation numbers of the two countries were both considerable in 2012, 37,900 and 23,600 respectively, in which the amount published by China was 1.61 times of that of the United States.
In order to understand the average influence of Chinese papers, the authors calculated the two counties’ average citation numbers of each thesis. The indexes contrasted with each other in early years. For example, the figures of the United States and China respectively were 45.21 and 27.12, so the ratio was 1.67-to-1. However, the gap is closing. The ratio reduced to 1.15-to-1 in 2005 and further fell to 1.09-to-1 in 2012, indicating the expanding global influence of Chinese scholarly articles. Based on the analysis of total and average citation numbers, it is fair to say the focus of Chinese papers published in international journals is undergoing a shift from quantity to quality.
Social science scholars from China have experienced three stages. First, they entered in the international academia. After that, they started to make their voices heard and finally strived to gain greater discourse. Chinese studies on social sciences have achieved a huge progress in terms of publication number, citation number and international academic exchanges. It has overcome the previous disadvantageous position in the competition for academic discourse in the world.
Studies on China feature rapidly growing degree of internationalization, which can be attributed to China’s mounting impact on global issues and expanding role in the international community. This change explained the growing publishing sale of studies on China. It is noticeable that China has tailored strategies and policies to encourage the development of social sciences. For example, the country called for establishing a number of world-class universities in 1998 and vigorously promoting philosophy and social sciences in 2004. President Xi Jinping raised and specified the requirements on developing philosophy and social sciences in his speech to a symposium on philosophy and social sciences in 2016. The adjustment and implementation of national strategies have made the field more prosperous, serving the foundation for the explosive growth of articles written by Chinese research fellows.
The bigger role of Chinese social sciences in the global academia has also resulted from the country’s strategies for attracting talent and supporting funds. China witnessed the largest scale of overseas returnees since the 18th CPC National Congress, creating a more profound talent pool that has helped Chinese philosophy and social sciences to gain a greater voice in global discourse.
Chinese scholars should constantly improve the quality and influence of research papers in the coming years and make a use of international academic platforms to promote their findings and ideas, thus making greater contributions to the revitalization of the Chinese nation and construction of a human community with a shared destiny.
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A total of 3.13 million overseas-educated Chinese graduates chose to return to their homeland between 1978 and 2017, accounting for 83.73 percent of the overseas-educated graduates. Last year, the number of Chinese students studying abroad and returnees from overseas both grew, showing a continuous momentum for fitting with national strategies and sector demands. The number of returnees hit 480,900, a 11.19 percent year-on-year growth. Over the past 40 years since the reform and opening up, a total of about 5.2 million Chinese students have gone overseas for education. Currently, roughly 1.45 million Chinese students are studying and doing research abroad. In 2017, the destinations of most Chinese students studying abroad were still developed countries and regions in Europe and America while 66,100 students chose to continue their education in the countries along the proposed routes of the Belt and Road, outpacing the growth rate of students who went to Western countries.
China has welcomed about 2.31 million overseas returnees since the 18th CPC National Congress, accounting for about 74 percent of all overseas-educated graduates since 1978. The influx is obvious.
(edited by MA YUHONG)