２０世纪８０年代初，国门初开，大陆学界由港台文学研究延伸为“海外华文文学”研究。之所以用“华文”而非大陆惯用的中文来称谓，乃是海外各国采用汉字治文学的几乎都是华人。华人大多已经加入了所在国的国籍，被称为华族，系所在国公民而非华侨了。所在国的官方语言除了新 In the early 1980s, when China opened its doors to the Mainland, the mainland academic circles extended their study from the literary studies of Hong Kong and Taiwan to the study of “overseas Chinese literature.” The reason why “Chinese” is used instead of “Chinese”, which is commonly used in mainland China, is that almost all overseas Chinese who use Chinese character literatures are Chinese. Most Chinese have joined the nationality of the host country, known as the Chinese nationals, rather than the nationals of the host country. The official language of the host country is new