Chinese Studies

Specialisation of: Asian Studies
Degree: Master of Arts in Asian Studies
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 2 years
Start date: September
Language of instruction: English
Location: Leiden
Croho/isat code: 60840
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This two-year specialisation in Chinese Studies combines content courses with intensive and advanced language training. You will be taught by internationally recognised experts in fields ranging from political science to literature and religion, as well as experienced teachers of Chinese as a foreign language.
The programme will equip you with an excellent command of Mandarin (and – in the case of certain specialisations – of Classical Chinese), a broad knowledge of China, insight into its internal and external dynamics, and starting points for contextualising China within Asia. An important part of your training and education you will get from your one year stay at a prominent Chinese university.


In addition, the programme utilises the resources of the world-renowned Leiden sinological library, one of the largest and most diverse collection in Europe and an important reference point for scholars from around the world.

Staff

For an overview of all Chinese Studies staff, see the department’s page (in Dutch)
or the Leiden Institute of Area Studies page

Prof. Maghiel van Crevel

Maghiel van Crevel

We don’t tell students what they should do; we are educators, stimulating students to pursue their own cultural or linguistic interests.”

“Within our MA programme, all the lecturers rotate their activities: next year, for example, I will be giving individual supervision in literature and art. You coach students, of course, but at this level they themselves have to propose a subject. Like, for example, a Spanish student who is now completing her MA with a study of artistic depictions of forced evacuations because of that enormous dam across the Yangtze – an important and very interesting subject. We don’t want to tell students what they should do; we are educators, stimulating students to pursue their own cultural or linguistic interests.

Chinese Studies is expanding at a rapid pace, in part as a result of the growth of the Chinese economy. There are those who come in with a future business plan, but there are also students who are
interested in art, philosophy, literature, history and so on.

What is so special about this master’s is primarily that it is multi-disciplinary. I am a specialist in modern Chinese poetry; my colleagues include philosophers, political scientists, historians, economists, experts in material culture and religion etc. In addition, we offer a state-of-the-art language programme covering both modern and classical Chinese. We encourage students to extend their range of interest. The China-related library is one of the best in Europe and we have a very international team. It is this combination which makes this master’s programme so special.”