The article explores how studies of languages in China have benefi ted from advances in general linguistics since the publication of Ma Jianzhong’s Grammar, and at the same time have been largely confined to the scope delineated by the latter. It argues that in comparison with the paradigm-shifting period between the 1950s and 1960s, theoretical linguistics over the recent thirty years has displayed features of a normal science in the Kuhnian framework. The article offers observations on a few recent trends in linguistic research motivated by development in AI, with particular reference to focus on words, features of dependency, linguistic fields beyond syntax, and the usage-based theory. The article concludes with two proposals: that more emphasis be laid on interdisciplinary studies of Chinese linguistics and other fields of research, and that summaries of what is generally considered to be the best scholarship in Chinese linguistics since Ma Jianzhong be prepared and published for the benefi t of students at home and abroad.