On November 22, 2025, the 5th “Word & World” National Undergraduate Academic Forum, hosted by the College of Foreign Languages of Renmin University of China (RUC), was successfully held in Beijing. The forum brought together over 160 teachers and students from 36 universities nationwide to explore innovation and disciplinary advancement in foreign languages and literature. The event attracted enthusiastic submissions from students of Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Nanjing University, and many other institutions. After a rigorous review process, 85 outstanding papers were selected from submissions by more than 200 undergraduates, earning the opportunity for on-site presentation. The forum consisted of one main forum and ten parallel sub-forums. The top seven papers were presented in the main forum, while the remaining seventy-plus were showcased in sub-forums. Ultimately, the main forum awarded 2 Grand Prizes and 5 First Prizes, while the sub-forums conferred multiple Second and Third Prizes. Under the guidance of Dr. Zhou Xueying from the Department of English, the College of Humanities and Law at BUCT sent its 2022 cohort student Zhu Ruiqi, who presented in the main forum, earned the highest score, and won the Grand Prize, marking an exceptional achievement for the university.

The opening ceremony of the main forum was attended by Professor Wu Qian, Associate Dean of RUC’s College of Foreign Languages. Zhu Ruiqi’s award-winning paper, titled “The Beauty of Chinese Blue: Oscar Wilde’s Aesthetics of Labor and His Socialist Vision from the Perspective of Civilizational Dialogue”, adopts a civilizational-dialogue approach. Anchored in Marx’s critique of alienated labor and William Morris’s conception of labor artisticization, the study employs “aesthetics of labor” as its analytical framework to explore Wilde’s views on the artistic value of labor and his ideal of “freedom of labor.” The research further traces Chinese intellectual and cultural elements embedded in Wilde’s thought—such as observations from Chinatown, Chinese craftsmanship, and Zhuangzi’s philosophy—demonstrating how these influences shaped Wilde’s aesthetics of labor and his socialist imagination. During the session, scholars including Professor Xie Jiangnan from RUC provided professional evaluation and scoring for the student’s presentations.

Amid China’s efforts to advance educational modernization and promote Chinese-style modernization, new liberal arts development and interdisciplinary integration have become key pathways for the high-quality advancement of foreign language disciplines. Against this backdrop, RUC’s College of Foreign Languages successfully hosted this year’s forum, “Word & World”, under the theme “Foreign Languages and Global Humanities.” The event encompassed six major languages—English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, and Spanish—and covered a wide array of research fields, including literature, linguistics, translation studies, cultural studies, area studies, and interdisciplinary topics. In an era characterized by multilingualism, diversity, and global interconnectedness, foreign language and literature research holds vast potential in civilizational dialogue, international communication, digital humanities, and area studies.

In recent years, the College of Humanities and Law of BUCT has actively embraced trends in new liberal arts development and interdisciplinary scholarship, constantly exploring new paths for high-quality development of foreign language disciplines. By leveraging a collaborative education system that bridges English studies, law, and other disciplines, the College has promoted deep integration between foreign language studies and frontier fields such as civilizational dialogue, international communication, and digital humanities. This approach has significantly enhanced students’ academic competence and interdisciplinary research capacity. The outstanding achievement of BUCT’s student in this prestigious national forum fully reflects the College’s strengths in foreign language education and interdisciplinary talent cultivation. Moving forward, the College will continue to support students in engaging with high-level academic platforms, exploring cutting-edge topics from global humanities perspectives, and contributing innovative achievement to elevate the development of foreign language disciplines to new heights.