On the morning of December 18th, 2024, Professor Xu Derong of Ocean University of China (OUC) was invited to visit the School of Foreign Studies (SFS) at Nankai University, where he delivered a wonderful lecture themed “A long time of sitting and lingering flies ere I know—my opinion on project application.” Attending the event were Prof. Li Min, vice dean of SFS; Prof. Zhang Zhizhong, director of the translation department; Prof. Wang Lidan, director of the Russian department; along with several teachers and doctoral students from the English, Translation, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian departments, and Department of Foreign Languages for Non-Majors.
In the lecture, Prof. Xu Derong first emphasized the importance of focus and deep cultivation in the research field, drawing from the phrase “A long time of sitting” in the poem Bei Shan (written by Wang Anshi in the Song dynasty, translated by Prof. Guo Zhuzhang). Following this, combining his own experiences of study and scientific research, Prof. Xu pointed out that conducting research is a process of anchoring direction during exploration, discovering and recognizing problems in practice, and continuously examining one’s challenges through the accumulation of articles, professional practice, team building, project declarations, and the formation of research fields. Only in this way can we establish a sustainable route for scientific research development from one unit and disseminate it throughout the entire area. Simultaneously, Prof. Xu Derong urged that scholars need to comprehend the logical subdivision of research fields and maintain clear academic planning and missions, which will help avoid haphazard trend-following and the blind pursuit of hot spots, while neglecting the field in which they should be rooted.
Regarding the writing of the application form for projects of the National Social Science Fund of China, Prof. Xu Derong emphasized that topic selection should highlight awareness of the problem, have a clear research object, and provide a precise definition of concepts. Prof. Xu Derong then detailed the problem’s solution, research object, framework, key and difficult points, research objectives, and important considerations from previous research results. He emphasized that we must focus on the logic and rationale of the research content, the clarity of language expression, and the readability of the application.
During the interactive questioning session, the teachers and students expressed that they greatly benefited from and were encouraged by Prof. Xu Derong’s sincere and warm academic sharing, and they exchanged views with him on the details of writing the application.
Professor Xu Derong is a highly accomplished academic, serving as a doctoral supervisor and postdoctoral co-supervisor at Ocean University of China. He is also the vice president of the China Society for the Studies of Children’s Literature of the China Comparative Literature Association, director of the China Society for the Studies of Children’s Literature, and deputy secretary general of the Shandong Translators and Interpreters Association. In addition, he holds the position of deputy dean at the Xing Yuan Shu Yuan (Xing Yuan Academy) of OUC and is recognized as a Qingdao Top-notch Talent. His research focuses on children’s literature translation, and he has published more than 70 papers in Chinese Translators Journal, Foreign Literature Studies, International Research of Children’s Literature (A&HCI), and other journals. Professor Xu has presided over two projects of the National Social Science Fund of China, namely, “Stylistic Study of Children’s Literature Translation” and “Study of Chinese Children’s Literature Translation in the Past Hundred Years”, as well as 10 scientific research projects under the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education. He also had extensive experience as a consecutive and simultaneous interpreter, having worked at over 500 international conferences.
