ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the relevance to China of the aforementioned three phases of development of comparative literature. Comparative literature in China follows a positive approach centered on communication and influence and overcomes its French and American counterparts’ parochiality of being either Europe-centric or Western-centric. It is truly committed to the equal exchange between Eastern and Western literatures, thereby fostering this brand new third phase of comparative literature. The chapter explains that, in recent years, comparative literature in China has witnessed new theoretical explorations, the establishment of a literary anthropology, the rise of translation as an independent discipline, encounters between overseas Chinese literature and diasporic literature, and clear elucidations of various literary relations. This chapter concludes that the essence of comparative literature in China lies in the effort to promote mutual understanding and equal dialogue between literatures; opposing both cultural hegemony and cultural fundamentalism, while upholding humanism and envisaging a world of balanced multipolarity.
