Zhang Hao, the chief editor, is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and dean of the College of International Chinese Studies, Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU). Having been engaged in teaching Chinese as a foreign language for more than 30 years, Professor Zhang has taught in overseas universities in the United States and Canada for nearly 10 years, and has travelled overseas as an expert of Hanban to conduct Chinese teacher training for many times. Her research mainly focuses on Chinese language teaching and cultural communication studies. She has published more than 30 papers in core journals and 6 monographs, and has presided over and participated in 7 provincial and ministerial projects. Professor Zhang has been awarded the Beijing Higher Education Teaching Award and the Beijing Teachers’ Virtues Pioneer Award. As the person in charge, she has declared and won the evaluation of national first-class undergraduate programmes, national first-class courses, Beijing excellent nurturing team, Beijing key first-class majors and so on.

The Advanced Chinese Comprehensive Course (three volumes in total) has distinct professional characteristics.

1. Systematicness. The content arrangement of each of the three volumes has its own emphasis, jointly forming an integrated whole. Volume 1 focuses on the study of grammar, especially the correlative conjunctions in complex sentences at the advanced level. Volume 2 is dedicated to the systematic study of commonly used rhetorical devices. Volume 3 specifically conducts training in the reading and writing of academic articles. Within each volume, the content of each lesson also complements one another to jointly achieve the teaching design intentions.

2. Informativeness. The selection of language materials in the textbook is based on the criteria of “knowledge capacity” and “professional depth”, seeing that language materials at various levels are carefully selected around the central topic of each lesson. Every piece of language material, and even each example sentence, is made to be as authentic as possible in content, without going against common sense or facts, and adhering to the principle of seeking truth from facts.

3. Scientificness. This textbook respects the laws of Chinese language learning and scientifically addresses issues not covered by the Grading Standards. For example, regarding rhetorical devices, the Grading Standards do not provide specific introductions or classifications. However, commonly used rhetorical devices are of great importance in advanced reading and writing, so the textbook arranges for a systematic explanation in Volume 2. Another example is idioms. There are more than 300 pieces of idioms in the Grading Standards, almost all of which are included in the vocabulary of Levels 7 to 9. Considering that a large number of commonly used idioms are not included, and that the vocabulary learning at the advanced level cannot overlook idioms, this textbook also takes the commonly used idioms that appear in the texts but are not listed in the Grading Standards as the key points for the explanation and practice in each volume, and provides very detailed introductions to their usages.

This textbook boasts a substantial amount of content, offering teachers abundant options. Teachers can select the teaching content, determine the focal points, and choose appropriate teaching methods based on factors such as class durations, students’ proficiency levels, and course requirements. It is suitable for both intensive and extensive reading courses. Teachers have the flexibility to decide what to cover in class and what to assign as out-of-class tasks according to the actual situation.

Each of the three volumes has its own distinct focus in compilation. Volume 1 focuses on grammar, Volume 2 rhetoric, and Volume 3 the structure of written works. Users can either study the volumes consecutively according to their needs or pick a specific volume to study independently. For each volume, supporting resources (including answers to exercises) are provided in the form of a unique code for each book.