Chinese Studies - Modern History

Chinese studies combined with modern history offers an approach to understanding China that goes well beyond language learning alone, placing Chinese linguistic and cultural competence within a rigorous historical framework. China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilisations and one of its most consequential contemporary powers, and making sense of either dimension requires both cultural fluency and historical depth. Modern history provides the analytical tools to trace the dramatic transformations China has undergone over the last two centuries, from the end of the Qing dynasty through revolution, Mao's China and the extraordinary economic transformation of the reform era to the present.

At the University of St Andrews, the Chinese studies strand of this four-year degree goes beyond the traditional model of language and literature to include visual and popular cultures, as the university's own description notes, offering a broader engagement with Chinese cultural life in all its contemporary diversity. You will develop your Mandarin Chinese to an advanced level, building reading, writing, speaking and listening skills across a range of contexts. The modern history strand explores the political, social, economic and cultural history of China and the wider world in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries, developing the analytical and interpretive skills central to historical study.

A year abroad is built into the programme, giving you the opportunity to spend time in a Chinese-speaking environment and to deepen your language and cultural knowledge through immersion.

The combination of Chinese language competence and historical understanding is particularly sought after in a world where China's role in global politics, economics and culture continues to grow.

Graduates go on to careers in diplomacy, international business, journalism, intelligence and security, policy analysis, translation and interpreting, education, research and international organisations. Further study in Chinese studies, Asian studies, international relations or history is also common.