1 Preface

We discussed the increasing demand for foreign knowledge and language proficiency since China's reform and opening up, as well as the importance of country and regional studies. Emphasis was placed on the response of the foreign language education community to this demand, by expanding disciplinary boundaries and conducting interdisciplinary research to cultivate specialized talents. In 2013, country and regional studies were included as one of the five major directions of the discipline of foreign language and literature, marking the beginning of disciplinary transformation. In 2021, the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council proposed to add a first level discipline of "Regional and Country Studies" under the "Interdisciplinary" category, aiming to cultivate specialized talents in global heterogeneous cultures. In 2022, the "Catalogue of Graduate Education Disciplines" officially established the first level discipline of "Regional and National Studies". The 2024 Basic Requirements provide a detailed description of the research objects and disciplinary scope of regional studies, including six directions: theoretical methods, comprehensive research, thematic research, comparative research, exchange and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations, and global and regional governance. The establishment of regional studies has provided a new path for interdisciplinary research and talent cultivation, but it has also brought challenges to foreign language and literature disciplines in terms of national and regional studies and talent cultivation. The article proposes the need to clarify the relationship between "country and region studies" in regional studies and foreign language and literature disciplines, and explore how foreign language and literature disciplines can empower the construction of regional studies.

Characteristics of Regional Studies as Independent Disciplines

As an independent discipline, regional and national studies have the characteristics of regionalism, comprehensiveness, interdisciplinarity, and interdisciplinary integration. Its research results are strategic, strategic, practical, and timely. The essential feature of this discipline lies in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary integration, requiring researchers to have multidisciplinary knowledge accumulation to construct a comprehensive knowledge system. The research objects of regional studies include specific countries or regions, involving multiple dimensions such as geography, history, culture, politics, and economy, requiring the integration of natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences. In addition, regional academic talents need to master the main languages of the target countries and regions, possess multilingual communication and research abilities, in order to conduct long-term life experiences and fieldwork. Disciplinary training is a professional characteristic of the competence of regional and national academic talents. Through specialized academic training supported by multiple disciplines, disciplinary literacy is cultivated, including the accumulation of basic knowledge, enhancement of professional skills, and formation of professional experience. Discipline training should also focus on the interrelationships between science, technology, and society, cultivate students' ability to solve practical problems, and develop core competencies.

Discipline construction based on the characteristics of regional and national studies as independent disciplines

As an independent discipline, the knowledge system of regional studies includes national or regional history and culture, major languages and systematic professional knowledge, and related disciplinary knowledge networks. The construction of teaching staff requires the integration of foreign research forces from various disciplines in universities, forming disciplinary clusters and interdisciplinary talent training communities. The goal of talent cultivation is to cultivate high-quality international talents with both Eastern and Western cultural attainments, academic foundations, international perspectives, and patriotism, emphasizing four dimensions: multilingual, localized, interdisciplinary, and international. The design of the teaching system is based on the fundamental goal of cultivating students' moral character, closely focusing on local knowledge, language skills, and subject training, and constructing a teaching system that is stratified by master's/doctoral students and classified by professional disciplines. The curriculum system includes regional modules, language modules, and professional modules, establishing a clear and multi-dimensional curriculum system to provide personalized choices for students with different disciplinary backgrounds and foundations. To establish a theoretical framework for country and regional research with a Chinese perspective and characteristics of Chinese discourse, encourage students to leverage the advantages of multilingual tools and engage in country and regional research, require students to master at least two relevant languages required for country and regional research, and obtain more comparative research samples through professional learning to conduct more in-depth and universal research. Construct a "Professional Discipline Training Course" module, with necessary professional courses provided by relevant disciplines, to achieve interdisciplinary training programs, enabling students to proficiently use relevant foreign languages for communication and research, understand the general development process of human civilization and the basic methods, academic history, and development trends of world history research, master the basic theories and research methods of humanities and social sciences, and become regional academic talents who not only have a wide understanding of various aspects of knowledge in the target country, but also have profound research on a certain field and academic trends in that country/region, forming a new interdisciplinary composite talent training model that breaks through a single discipline.

4. Country and Regional Studies in the Discipline of Foreign Languages and Literature and Their Empowerment of Regional Country Studies Construction

Analyzed the characteristics of regional ethnology as an independent discipline and its demand for discipline construction, emphasizing the important role of foreign language and literature discipline in the construction of regional ethnology. The discipline of foreign language and literature provides support for the discipline construction of regional studies (economics, law, history, etc.) through multilingual foreign language education and literary cultural civilization dimensions. The 2024 Basic Requirements stipulate that the training objective of regional studies is to serve the country's foreign cooperation strategy and cultivate talents with cross-cultural understanding and communication skills, as well as international communication awareness and abilities. Regional studies require researchers to master the language of the target country and use it as a research and examination tool. The national and regional research directions of the discipline of foreign language and literature have interdisciplinary and comprehensive research attributes, focusing on humanistic issues in the target countries and regions, emphasizing problem orientation and field investigation. It also provides a detailed introduction to the national and regional research directions of 10 secondary disciplines based on languages and language groups, including English, Russian, French, German, Japanese, Indian languages, Spanish, Arabic, European languages, and Afro Asian languages. Integrating national and regional research directions into these secondary disciplines enriches the research level of related secondary disciplines, providing broad space and possibilities for deepening the subjectivity of foreign language and literature disciplines in national and regional research and supporting the construction of the first level discipline of "regional country studies". The establishment of the second level discipline of "Foreign Language Education" represents a new mission and responsibility for the discipline of foreign language and literature, promoting national and regional research and its educational laws, and building a foreign language education law and teacher team capable of cultivating talents for "regional national studies".

5 Conclusion

Emphasize the core position of talent cultivation in regional studies and foreign language education, and point out the importance of promoting discipline construction through practice. Clarify the disciplinary attributes of regional studies, and the foreign language and literature discipline will provide teachers, theories, and teaching systems for national and regional studies. Universities need to follow the laws of disciplinary development, combine basic theories and current research, language foundations and interdisciplinary knowledge systems, focus on talent, be problem oriented, accurately position and reasonably layout, and form a distinctive development pattern. Achieving these goals requires collaborative efforts among universities and institutions across the country.