On the evening of March 15, 2010, Professor Hoyt Tillman, a famous sinologist of Arizona State University, America delivered a speech named “Chinese Academic Thoughts in the West” in Rm. 225, ZijingangInt’lConferenceCenter.

Professor Hoyt Tillman first introduced famous American sinologists from Chen Rongjie, Wm Theodore de Bary to Roger T. Ames and Benjamin A. Elman and their evolution. American sinology, first brought from Europe, carried forward the “down-to-earth learning” tradition of European sinology, such as, textual criticism and commentariology. As the first-generation sinologist, Mr. Chen Rongjie was a representative. However, due to rigid methods and narrow orientation of Chen Rongjie, Wm Theodore de Bary shifted from “down-to-earth learning” to “Song studies”, which were then popularized by Roger T. Ames and thus the unique sinologistic tradition of America formed. Professor Hoyt Tillman said the evolution of American sinology was actually a shift from traditional sinology to social sciences, which was not only shown in some breakthroughs in research methods, but in problem awareness of researches.

Professor Hoyt Tillman, with his simple and profound lecture, won warm applause from the audience. Professor He Jun, Director of Center of Song Studies chaired the lecture and made a wonderful conclusion. It is the 45^th of the lectures of “Zhejiang University Oriental Forum”, jointly held by Research Institute of Social Sciences and Center of Song Studies, ZJU.