The Institute of Aesthetics and Art Criticismwas founded in October 2016 through a joint effort between Shenzhen University (SZU) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). Relatively independent, the institute is under direct supervision from Shenzhen University. In April 2017, the Shenzhen Centre for “Marxist Literary and Artistic Theory and the Criticism Construction Project” was set up, and it has been affiliated to this institute. The institute, therefore, is a Shenzhen-based think tank that is co-sponsored by SZU and the Graduate School of CASS, assisting the Party and the government in literary and art policy.

Prof. Gao Jianping is the founding director of the institute, and Prof. Li Jian is thedeputy director. Prof. Gao has worked as the deputy director of the Institute of Literature at CASS before taking up this post. A past president of the International Association for Aesthetics (2013-2016), Prof. Gao currently serves as the president of Chinese Society for Aesthetics, the president of China Association of Sino-Foreign Literary & Arts Theories. He is also a professor and doctoral supervisor at the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Prof. Li Jian was responsible for teaching and researching literary theory in the School of Humanities, Shenzhen University. He is on the board of directors of both the China Association of Sino-Foreign Literary & Arts Theories and the China Association of Literary & Arts Theories. He is also a visiting professor and doctoral adviser in the College of Liberal Arts at Shanghai University.

Prof. Hu Jingzhi, a well-known literary theorist and aesthetician, has been engaged as the academic counsellor for the institute. Prof. Zhang Jiang, thefirst vice president of the University of CASS and the editor-in-chief ofChinese Social ScienceandLiterary Review,serves as the director of the institute’s academic committee and the chief scholar. Prof. Jiang Shuzhuo from Jinan University and Prof. Gao have been appointed as the deputy director of the academic committee. Members of the institute’s academic board also include: Prof. Zhang Longxi from City University of Hong Kong, Prof. Zhou Xian from Nanjing University, Prof. Wang Ning from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Prof. Du Guiping from Beijing Normal University, Prof. Chen Xiaoming from Peking University, and Prof. Li Fengliang from Southern University of Science and Technology.

The establishment of the institute aims at putting into effect the guiding principles of “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee concerning Letting Socialist Literature and Art Flourish” and General Secretary Xi Jinping’s “Talk at the Forum on Literature and Art”. The institute aspires to establish itself as a research base for Marxist literary theory and aesthetics, promoting the study of Chinese arts and aesthetics and cultivatingscholars of high quality.

Since its foundation, the institute has made remarkable achievements. In terms of research, it currently undertakes two major projects supported by the National Social Sciences Fund: “Study on the Keywords in Aesthetics and Art” and “The Principles of Chinese Poetry and its Regular Patterns through History”, with Prof. Gao Jianpingand Prof. Li Jian being the chief expert, respectively. The institute also takes on several research projects at both national and provincial level, and has published the firstseries of“Aesthetics and Art Criticism” (seven titles). With regard to postgraduate education, the institute plays a pivotal role in the curriculum design as well as the academic training for doctoral students from both the CASS and Shenzhen University.It also serves as a top forum in southern China for the exchange of ideas in aesthetics and art criticism, inviting dozens of famous scholars every year, from both home and abroad, to give public lectures. It is the convener and organizer of several conferences and seminars, including but limited to: Symposium on the Innovation of Literary Theory in a New Era, Annual Convention for the China Association of Sino-Foreign Literary & Arts Theories, and Advanced Seminar on Literary Hermeneutics.