The country and regional studies mainly involves in-depth research of the humanities, geography, politics, economy and other aspects of a specific country or a region. Since the end of the 20th century, with the rise of China’s international status and the growth of exchanges with foreign countries, the domestic foreign language teaching community pays more and more attention to the country and regional studies. The reason that the country and regional studies become so vigorous is that foreign language and literature research has adapted to the changes of the times for better serving national strategies. Meanwhile, these studies are comprehensive, deep and in step with the changes of the times, and their research subjects and approaches are diverse and open. The country and regional studies not only make up the shortcomings of the traditional foreign language and literature research in China, but also push the development of foreign language research to interdisciplinary orientations.
The Country and Regional Studies Center under the School of Foreign Studies of Hefei University of Technology was established in 2018. Now it has 15 members engaged in both teaching and research, with the languages involved in English, French, German, Japanese, Indonesian and Russian. As of now, the center has developed into a comprehensive teaching and research platform that features integration of practical teaching, academic research, student cultivation, and exchanges with foreign counterparts.