The School of Music and Dance, Hainan University, was established in January 2019, with its roots traced back to the earlier establishment of the School of Arts founded in 1985. In 2014, the school received authorization to grant the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree, and in 2017 it obtained approval to confer the academic master’s degree in the first-level disciplines of music and dance.

It boasts a faculty of 67 members, including 56 full-time teachers. Among them, there are 7 professors (equivalent to the Senior Professional Title), 28 associate professors (equivalent to the Deputy Senior Professional Title), and 17 teachers holding doctoral degrees, thus creating a faculty with a well-balanced structure and high levels of expertise.

The school consists of “6 departments and 6 centers”. They are the Department of Vocal and Opera, the Department of Piano, the Department of Instrumental Music, the Department of Musicology, the Department of Composition and Conducting, and the Department of Dance. The centers are the Artistic Practice Center, the Experimental Teaching of Music and Dance Center, the Maritime Silk Road Music and Culture Research Center, the Hainan Artistic Intangible Cultural Heritage Creativity Research Center, the Musical Creation Center, and the Hewu Feixiang (Hainan) Charity Culture and Art Practice Center. The school currently offers two undergraduate majors: Music Performance and Dance Choreography. The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program has two fields — music and dance, with research directions in Vocal Singing, Instrumental Performance, Composition, Conducting, Music Art Management, Dance Choreography, and Dance Education. Additionally, the academic master’s program includes research directions in Chinese Music History and Ethnomusicology.

In recent years, the school has undertaken over 60 research projects of various types, including 6 National Social Science Fund Art Planning projects, 4 National Art Fund projects, and more than 30 provincial-level projects. It has a research funding exceeding RMB 5.7 million. Its faculty members have published over 70 monographs and more than 300 academic papers, and received over 200 awards of various kinds.

Placing a strong emphasis on education and teaching practice, the school has made efforts to provide a practice platform for students’ artistic development. This includes the establishment of various student groups, such as the “Hainan University Student Choir”, the “Hainan University Symphony Orchestra”, the “Hainan University Chinese Classical Orchestra”, the “Hainan University Yangqin Ensemble”, and the “Hainan University Dance Troupe”, among others.

Leveraging the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port as an opportunity, the school follows the overarching guidance of discipline development. It pursues a path marked by a commitment to practical training and internationalization, with the objective of achieving the “integration of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.” The school, while remaining dedicated to the primary objective of fostering virtue through education, accelerates the enhancement of its capabilities in talent development, scientific research, social engagement, cultural preservation and innovation, and international exchanges and collaboration. Through ongoing improvement of its educational quality and academic standards, it aims to establish itself as a distinguished institution of art education with a significant influence in both China and throughout Southeast Asia.