Oriental Studies – Chinese Studies

Full-time undergraduate and graduate studies, and part-time undergraduate studies.

The program in Oriental Studies – Chinese Studies is highly interdisciplinary, although the leading discipline is cultural and religious studies. This unique educational program is offered exclusively at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Warsaw, which boasts almost 90 years of experience in teaching about Oriental/African cultures and languages, including Chinese. This experience is evidenced by the creation of the unique program in Oriental Studies – Chinese Studies. The curriculum is based on years of experience and practice in teaching and researching issues related to China and aspects of Chinese culture. The lecturers are specialists, in most cases the only ones in Poland, in matters related to this geographical and cultural area, conducting advanced research supported by numerous publications in both Polish and foreign publishing houses. Language classes are conducted by native speakers. Additionally, to enhance their qualifications and language skills, students have the opportunity to apply for a language or scientific internship in China or Taiwan.

The intended learning outcomes have a dual nature: they guarantee the acquisition of extensive knowledge in various aspects of Chinese culture and the ability to use the Chinese language. The studies provide broad knowledge in literature, history, philosophy, religion, and the art of the cultural world and ensure the acquisition of advanced language skills and competencies through intensive learning of the Chinese language.

The comprehensive education provided by the program in Oriental Studies – Chinese Studies, which also encompasses broadly understood humanities, allows for future interdisciplinary research and understanding the roots of contemporary world issues and attempts to find solutions to them. It provides students with a wide horizon necessary for understanding today’s problems and conflicts arising from civilizational differences. The program also enables the training of new personnel in the field of cultural and religious studies and other scientific disciplines. Implementing the program in Oriental Studies – Chinese Studies allows for achieving cognitive synergy and shaping a new trend of thinking and social awareness, comprising the much-needed understanding, openness, and tolerance towards others, and recognizing the value of one’s own culture and ethical attitudes stemming from the European and Chinese circles.

The acquired knowledge will allow graduates of the Oriental Studies – Chinese Studies program to navigate the general issues concerning the theory and practice of the Chinese cultural sphere. Graduates will understand the diversity of cultures and civilizations, enabling them to participate in the process of intercultural communication and cooperation. They will have a foundation for theoretical reflection on the cultures of China and Taiwan. Graduates will be able to analyze fundamental phenomena related to Chinese culture, using sound language preparation and methodological preparation in cultural and religious studies, linguistics, philosophy, history, literary studies, and art studies as tools for analysis.

Graduates will be ready to work in cultural promotion institutions, media, editorial offices, and public administration. The increasingly intensive economic contacts with China create a demand in the job market for experts familiar with the language and cultural-social realities of the countries in this region. Political and diplomatic contacts with China require the employment of specialists in Chinese language and culture, who are graduates of the Oriental Studies – Sinology program. Moreover, graduates will be prepared to pursue graduate studies.

The first to be established in Poland, the Department of Sinology takes its origins from the Chinese Department created in 1933 at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw. The most eminent professors associated with the Warsaw Sinology were Witold Jabłoński (1901-1957), Janusz Chmielewski (1916-1998), Olgierd Wojtasiewicz (1916-1995), Tadeusz Zbikowski (1930-1989), Mieczysław Jerzy Kunstler (1933-2007), and Zbigniew Ślączka (1934-2020). Their legacy includes numerous translations of Chinese literary works into Polish (Zhuangzi; Qu Yuan’s Songs from Chu; Confucian Analects; Journey to the West; Romance of the Three Kingdoms), academic writings (Notes on Early Chinese Logic; Sinitic Languages), and publications addressed at the general public (Anthology of Chinese Literature; Chinese Art; History of Chinese Culture).

At present, the academic staff of the department includes one full professor (Lidia Kasarełło), two associate professors, three PhD holders, one lecturing native speaker, and three contracted lecturers from China and Taiwan. The Department of Sinology enrols students on a yearly basis for its first-cycle and second-cycle study programmes, offering courses in modern Chinese (both traditional and simplified characters, mainland and Taiwan standards), classical Chinese, Chinese history, literature, politics, linguistics, history of Chinese art, and translation. Students can apply for long term and short term scholarships to mainland China and Taiwan. Postgraduates may enrol at one of doctoral schools of the University of Warsaw.

The Warsaw Department of Sinology participates in academic exchange with numerous centres in Europe and around the world. Thanks to the support of the Chinese Center for Language Education and Cooperation (former name: Hanban), the Taiwanese Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, and Huayu Teaching Center, the department library is constantly being enlarged and updated.

Our staff, next to lecturing duties, pursue their own research and publish widely. Their most recent contributions include literary translations: two large anthologies of Chinese and Taiwanese literature, Chinese modern and classical poetry, Chinese philosophy (Mencius with commentaries), and academic writings (Chinese Symbolic Culture; Chinese Female Namings; The Past in the Ideology of the Communist Party of China; Chinese Ghosts and Magic: On the Multilayer Character of the Soushenji; Tired of Modernity).

The Department of Sinology conducts research in the following fields:

• Chinese culture: literature, art and theatre, popular culture of China and Taiwan
• Chinese linguistics
• Teaching Chinese as a second language
• Early Confucian political philosophy
• Modern Chinese politics
• Modern Chinese literature
• History of Chinese Muslims and Chinese nationalism
• Chinese mythology and the religions of Ancient China, Chinese sectarian tradition

More detailed information about the study program and the major can be found on the website: www.sinologia.uw.edu.pl