<正>One of the catchphrases of recent decades is for China to "march toward the world," zouxiang shijie.This is a positive phrase,showing the upbeat consequence of China’s "opening-up" policy adopted at the end of 1970s,after years of political turmoil.But it is also a potentially troubling phrase,for it assumes that we are not "in" the world already.If there is both truth and untruth to this ambiguous statement,what might be their implications and ramifications? Taking this statement as a starting point,this paper talks about humanities education in China and humanities education about China from the perspective of someone who teaches Chinese literature and culture in the US;it talks about the university as a social institution and its complex relation to the nation state,with higher education in the US and in China as a case in point;it also talks about how humanities education should play its part—an important one,for that matter—in any given society in the age of globalization.Just as China needs to be better understood by the "world," China also needs to understand the "world" better;and the "world" should include the totality of world cultures in their diverse languages,forms and historical traditions,not just a small fraction of the world in its current appearance and expression.