Published : 11/09/2025

On 11 September 1994, Professor Xu Guozhang (許國璋), a renowned Chinese English educationist, linguist, and doctoral supervisor at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), passed away in Beijing at the age of 79.

Xu Guozhang was born in Haining County, Zhejiang Province, and studied at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the National Southwestern Associated University (NSAU), before later travelling to the United Kingdom to study in 1947.

In October 1949, Xu returned to China and became a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University. During his decades-long career in education, Xu Guozhang worked tirelessly and selflessly, dedicating his life's efforts to the cause of foreign language education and linguistic research in China.

The university textbook series "English", for which Xu Guozhang was the chief editor, has been used throughout the country since the early 1960s, remaining popular for decades and becoming a model for similar English teaching materials in China.

In addition to being an English educationist, Xu Guozhang was also an outstanding linguist who made many pioneering contributions in the field of linguistics.

Xu Guozhang wrote prolifically throughout his life, and many of his works, including The Definition, Function and Origin of Language and On the Arbitrariness of the Linguistic Sign, are highly original and have become classic texts in contemporary linguistic studies.

In academic fields such as foreign literature, translation and cultural studies, and Lu Xun studies, Xu Guozhang also made significant achievements, contributing to cultural exchange between China and other countries and leaving behind a valuable cultural legacy.