Nankai University history

The well-known Nankai Institute of Economics was established in 1927 and soon became one of the most prominent in China being the first non-foreign entity to calculate a Chinese Consumer Price Index.

Then, the history discipline had reached an unprecedented period of development at Nankai. It was in 1932 that the Department of History was formally established and chaired by the well-known scholar Jiang Tingfu.

In July 1937, during the Sino-Japanese War, Nankai campus was severely damaged by Japanese bombings.

In 1946, after the war, Nankai returned to Tianjin and was reformed into a national university by the government.

In 1976 a catastrophic earthquake broke out in Tangshan, bordering Tianjin, causing damage of varying degrees to the School's buildings.

In February 1978, the State Council decided to resume and set up national key colleges, Nankai University is identified as the first national key college.

In Arts, applied specialities on financing were set up and the School of Economics was reopened in 1983, while in Sciences, interdisciplinary, marginal and high and new technological specialities were added.

In 1989 the university was ordered by the Tianjin public security bureau to send two Americans back home, following rising political tensions over pro-democracy demonstrations.

In 1994 Tianjin Foreign Trade College was merged to Nankai university.

In 1999 under the combined efforts of Nankai and TEDA, TEDA College was set up.

The foundation of College of History in October 2000 has opened an opportunity for an innovative development of the history discipline at Nankai.