外国语言与文化

Foreign Languages and Cultures

Foreign Languages and Culture (FLC) is a peer-reviewed, open-access, and interdisciplinary quarterly journal of foreign languages sponsored by Hunan Normal University and headed by Hunan Provincial Department of Education. The inaugural issue of the journal was published in September 2017. Led by Jiang Hongxin, the Chairman of the English Teaching Committee of the Ministry of Education, and an editorial board composed of leading scholars in their respective fields, FLC was originally established to lead the debates on foreign language and literature education in China. FLC is now indexed in Scopus, ERIH PLUS, CNKI, and NSSD.


Call for Papers

Sponsored by Hunan Normal University, Foreign Languages and Cultures is a foreign language academic journal approved by the National Press and Publication Administration [(2016) no. 5011]. We eagerly look forward to receiving support of the academic communities, and warmly welcome contributions from foreign language educators and researchers. The following instructions are given for the submission of manuscripts:

Submissions Guidelines

​Submissions will be in Chinese, between 7,000 and 12,000 characters. All papers shall be submitted through the CNKI submission system: http://wywh.cbpt.cnki.net/wkg/WebPublication/index.aspx?mid=wywh

  • The Bias of "Paradoxes": A Study of Raymond Williams's Criticism on George Orwell

    Shouyi Luo    001-012

    Column:Cultural Studies

    Abstract:Raymond Williams’s criticism on Orwell lasted for 30 years and turned all the more hostile. According to Williams, Orwell and his works were a complex of “paradoxes”: Orwell intended to be committed to the society but constantly felt alienated; he tried to build connection with proletarians but always failed to do so, and these paradoxes were fundamentally related to his “ruling-class” identity and ultimately threw him into despair. Based upon Orwell’s life details and writings, this thesis attempts a critical analysis of “Williams’s Orwell,” revealing Williams’s complex feelings dominated by “anxiety of influence”, refuting all kinds of biases caused by Williams’s class-determined perspective, and aiming for a clarification of the major misunderstandings of Orwell and his works.

  • "Through a Dark Forest": On Three Visions in James Joyce's "Araby"

    Meng Zhang    013-023

    Column:Cultural Studies

    Abstract:James Joyce’s reading and acceptance of Dante have always been a topic of great concern to Joyce scholars. This article argues that the influence of the Divine Comedy is extremely typical as to form, among other things, the structure, characters and images of Joyce’s short story “Araby.” Provided that in the Divine Comedy, Dante’s “poetics of conversion” is realized through the structure of the “three visions” (the corporeal, the spiritual, and the intellectual); then in Araby there is also an underlying structure of “three visions,” namely the secular life of North Richmond Street, Mangan’s sister and the Araby market....

  • The Misread Text and History: Richard II and the Essex Incident of 1601

    Qingyu Wang    024-034

    Column:Cultural Studies

    Abstract:The widely accepted belief that there was a strong connection between the Essex “rebellion” and William Shakespeare’s Richard II has limited scholars’ interpretation of this play. This research sheds light on how a supposed “historical context” has consistently misled the understanding of the play. The Earl of Essex’s political opponents within the Elizabethan government used John Hayward’s The First Part of the Life and Raigne of King Henrie IIII to implicate Essex in a plot, portraying his group as scheming by staging a performance of Richard II on the day before the “rebellion”. They even intentionally conflated Hayward’s historical ...

  • On the Dissemination and Influence of Zetian Characters in Japan

    Yang Liu    035-046

    Column:Cultural Studies

    Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to study the spread process and reasons of Zetian characters in Japan. It is believed that Japanese characters are mainly spread through official channels in Japan, and attention should be paid to the political factors behind cultural communication. Except for the word “圀”, the use of Zetian characters in existing official documents and materials is concentrated between the seventh envoy to the Tang Dynasty (702) and the eighth envoy to the Tang Dynasty (717). After that, few official materials were used to use Zetian characters, while people in Nara and Heian periods used Zetian characters more frequently. The use of Zetian characters by Japanese people played down its political meaning and highlighted its beautiful moral side.

  • The Image of the Monarch and the Concept of Monarchy in the German Baroque Drama Pietas Victrix

    Jue Wang    047-055

    Column:German Literature Studies

    Abstract:Avancini is one of the representative writers of the Baroque period in Germany, and his representative work is Pietas Victrix. In the play, Avancini chooses Constantine the Great, the first Christian monarch in European history, to portray him as a model of a devout and virtuous Christian monarch. In the history of German literature, this play is one of the representative works of Baroque drama and constitutes an important part of the political discourse of Baroque drama; On the political level, it reflects the creative demands of Avancini to promote faith and express political concepts through dramatic creation.

  • The Depiction of "Thunderstorm" and the Humanistic Spirt in Klopstock's "Frühlingsfeier"

    Yi Xu    056-068

    Column:German Literature Studies

    Abstract:In 1752, Benjamin Franklin successfully invented the lightning rod, which marked a significant milestone in man’s comprehension and manipulation of nature. From that point, man liberated himself from the fear and anxiety caused by “thunderstorms”, and began to set positive aesthetic value to this weather phenomenon. Following this breakthrough of the history of technology, the German Enlightenment poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock composed the free-rhythm hymn “Frühlingsfeier” with the theme of “thunderstorm” which served as an emblematic work in his oeuvre. This poem, with its pioneering technique from content to form, constitutes the initial affirmative aesthetic portrayal of the “thunderstorm” in the history of German literature with profound impact....

  • A Study of Audience Awareness in the Paratext of the Graphic Novel A Chinese Life

    Lianxiang Tan, Jihui Zhang    069-079

    Column:Translation and Communication Studies

    Abstract:In the digital age, it is indispensable to explore how to improve the reception of Chinese culture in the world through multimodal narratives. The graphic novel A Chinese Life, co-authored by Chinese cartoonist Li Kunwu and French diplomat Philippe Ôtié, has been translated into more than ten languages. Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié explain the narrative characteristics of the work and the factors shaping them through epitexts such as media interviews, while reconstructing cultural context through peritexts such as covers and footnotes. Their efforts aim to match the target audience’s cognitive framework of Chinese culture. ...

  • Collaborative Translation of Scientific Works in Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties: A Study of Its Modes and Contemporary Implications

    Chunrang Shi, Haoyu Chen    080-088

    Column:Translation and Communication Studies

    Abstract:In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a noteworthy collaboration unfolded between foreign missionaries and Chinese scholar-officials. They engaged in a close partnership, employing diverse cooperative translation methods such as “Western scholars orally instructing, Chinese scholars recording”, “Western scholars translating, Chinese scholars refining”, and “Western scholars slossing, Chinese scholars making prefaces”. Through these collaborative translation strategies, a significant influx of Western scientific works found their way into China. The collaborative translation approaches of that era offer valuable insights for contemporary endeavors in introducing Chinese culture globally. These insights ...

  • “Winning Children’s Hearts”: A Study of Chen Bochui’s Thought on the Translation of Children’s Literature

    Derong Xu, Chenfei Wang    089-100

    Column:Translation and Communication Studies

    Abstract:Chen Bochui’s thought on children’s literature translation, influential in China in the 20th century, reflects his pursuit and historical views for Chinese literature. The essence of his translation lies in the concept of child-oriented, motivated by the selection criterion of “combining fun and education” and the standard of “winning children’s hearts”, all aimed at achieving the goal of shaping a sound nation. Chen Bochui’s translation thought not only improves the quality of children and Chinese children’s literature, but also has great reference to current children’s education and the translation of children’s literature.

  • The Value of Chinese Folk Arts Exhibition in Contemporary "Cultural Diplomacy"

    Danlei Qin, Geng Chen    101-108

    Column:Translation and Communication Studies

    Abstract:Chinese folk art contains the philosophy of “harmony between nature and man” and the universal value of “truth, goodness and beauty”. The international exhibition of Chinese folk art, as an essential ingredient of contemporary “cultural diplomacy”, is conducive to upgrade the comprehensive construction of national soft power, strengthening the effective link with the culture of the target country, enhancing the vitality of the content of cultural diplomacy under the globalization. The world will recognize a real China through Chinese folk arts exhibition, understanding Chinese traditional thinking, ethnics and diplomatic attitude of “opening-up, friendliness, peace”.

  • Generation of the Topic Structure in the Left Periphery of Chinese Nominal Phrases

    Yitong Gao    109-121

    Column:Linguistic Studies

    Abstract:This article starts from the DP left periphery structure to investigate issues such as the types of topics within this structure, distribution characteristics, deduction processes, and whether there is parallelism between the CP and DP left periphery topic structures. The analysis suggests that the DP left periphery topic structure only allows for hanging topics, and there are also differences in co-occurrence and word order among subclasses of hanging topics: multiple possessor topic structures do not allow co-occurrence, while locative and temporal topics can co-occur; there is no dominant word order when locative topics and temporal topics co-occur, allowing for freedom and flexibility, but the co-occurrence of single types of locative or temporal topics must follow a distribution pattern of larger framework > smaller framework, larger scope > smaller scope....

  • A Cognitive Study of the Time Orientation of Chinese qian: Based on an Investigation of "qian+X/X+qian" Words

    Tengji Yang    122-132

    Column:Linguistic Studies

    Abstract:Based on a qualitative analysis of the time orientations of “qian+X/X+qian” words, the thesis explores the time orientation types of qian and word building features of qian in different time orientation types, analyzes the conceptualization of different time orientation types of qian, and investigates which time orientation types qian prefers in word building and the cognitive causes for this preference. It has been found that there are four time orientation types of qian, including “earlier”, “now”, “future”, and “time vector”; the conceptualizer uses different perspectives to highlight different time features, taking four metaphorical projecting paths to generate four time orientation types; qian shows a preference for the “earlier” orientation type in word building, which shows that Chinese people are more inclined to use a distal perspective to cognize holistically.

  • The Effects of Automated Essay Scoring on the Syntactic Complexity of Intermediate EFL Learners' Writing

    Jiandong Hou    133-143

    Column:Linguistic Studies

    Abstract:The study investigates the effects of the feedback of iWrite system on the syntactic complexity of intermediate EFL learners’ writing. Using L2SCA, the study analyzes the overall complexity, subordinate complexity and phrase complexity. The results show that MLT, CP/T and CN/T significantly increased with the help of the feedback from iWrite system; however, there is no significant increase in terms of C/T and DC/T. The research argues that it is probably related to the feedback provided by the system. In addition, VP/T significantly decreases, which is the result of the avoidance strategy adopted by the learners.

  • A Design Sample of Moral Education in the Course of “Foreign Literary Research Methods”

    Yanhong Zheng    144-156

    Column:Curricula of Integrated Moral Education Studies

    Abstract:This paper takes the teaching contents of “Kenneth Rexroth and Tao Te Ching ” as examples to demonstrate the specific application of comparative method in literary research. From the view of historical criticism, the basic principles of Marxism are used to analyze the life and works of Rexroth to achieve the moral education goal of the course. In addition to theoretical discussion and text analysis, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on literary creation are presented to deepen the students’ understanding of the core values of socialism.

Magpie’s Miscellany: A Seminar of Comparative Literature at Hunan Normal University


Why a magpie? In European folklore, the magpie is known as a collector of things of value; just as this seminar seeks to collect and share ideas and literature from around the world, and facilitate their appreciation with our scholars and students. In many cultures magpies are symbols of good luck and joy, as th...

"Building Bridges, Brodening Horizons: China & Latin America" International Collquium


The International Colloquium“Building Bridges, Broadening Horizons: China and Latin America” takes the opportunity of the launching of the special issue of the Journal of Foreign Languages and Cultures in order to unfold a project concerning the strengthening of cultural, aesthetic and literary ties between China and Latin America.Instead of insisting in sophisticated forms of exceptionalism,...

Reading Salon 11: Philology of Love: Rediscovering Adrian Beverland's Lost Poma Amoris (c. 1679)


The 11th “Foreign Languages and Cultures” reading salon  was held by the Editorial Office of Foreign Languages and Cultures with the help of the Humboldt Transdisciplinary Studies Center. The speaker of the salon, Professor David Porter, shared with us a long-lost Latin manuscript that he had recently found by accident, Poma Amoris (The Fruits of Love) by Dutch scholar Adrian Beverland. This ...


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