My Expertise
Chinese literature and culture, Comparative intellectual and cultural history, Contemporary Chinese culture and society
Fields of Research (FoR)
Comparative Literature Studies, Literature in Chinese, Cultural StudiesBiography
I have a PhD in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, specializing in modern Chinese literature and comparative Chinese and European aesthetic history. My doctoral thesis was on the aesthetic politics of Romanticism in late 18th- early 19th century Europe and early twentieth century China, on their shared ambition to redeem a crisis-ridden modern history by transgressive poetic imagination. The monograph developed from this is published...view more
I have a PhD in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, specializing in modern Chinese literature and comparative Chinese and European aesthetic history. My doctoral thesis was on the aesthetic politics of Romanticism in late 18th- early 19th century Europe and early twentieth century China, on their shared ambition to redeem a crisis-ridden modern history by transgressive poetic imagination. The monograph developed from this is published in an esteemed Comparative Literary Studies series. My postdoctoral work extended my intellectual-historical concern for China’s cultural transformation to the post-reform debate on the use of classical traditions and history in popular culture.
My subsequent research in Chinese Studies is developed along my long-time interest in historical aesthetico-cultural practices from modern literary transformations to contemporary social-cultural change. It includes the spatial in modern Chinese fiction and genre development besides radical poetics. The comparative and transnational aspect of my training led to my studies of cultural translations, and the traveling of ideas and conventions.
I have sole authored three books, co-edited two books and one special journal issue. I have published articles in journals such as boundary 2, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, positions: a critique of east asian culture, and book chapters in Oxford Handbook of Modernisms, A Companion to modern Chinese Literature. I supervise PhD, MA and Honours students in Chinese and Comparative literary and cultural studies.
My Qualifications
PhD, the University of Pittsburgh
My Awards
Fellowships and Honours
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Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Lincoln, UK, 1 June – 1 July 2019;
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Distinguished Lecture Professor, College of Literature, Communication and Cultural Studies, Sichuan University, 2018-2022;
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Visiting Senior Fellow, Humanities Centre, the University of Pittsburgh, April–June 2015;
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Senior Fellow, Asia Research Institute, the National University of Singapore, December 2010 – March 2011;
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Senior Visiting Fellow, Centre for Literary and Cultural Research, Berlin, June–July 2009;
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Agora Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Studies), Berlin, 2000–2001;
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Senior Fellow, Collegium Budapest (Institute for Advanced Studies), Budapest, 2000 (winter)
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Post-doctoral Fellow, Institute for Comparative Poetics, Tel Aviv University, 1999–2000.
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Fulbright Graduate Scholar, US Information Agency,1989 -1990
My Research Activities
Keynote addresses and invited presentations
- Invited Presentation – “Escaping the Golden Age? Pictorial Hermitage and Non-Aspirational Youth Poetry”, SASS Seminar Series, School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University, Malaysia, May 27 2021 (online)
- The Dean’s Seminar – “The Bildungsroman of an Absolute Socialist Artist: Fu Lei’s Family letters 1954-1966,” Institute of Advanced Studies and Faculty of Arts, Lincoln University, June 2019
- Public Lecture – “Marketing Chinese Literature,” the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing, University of Leeds, June 2019
- Keynote Lecture – “The Socialist Bildungsroman,” College of Literary and Communication Studies, Sichuan University, June 2018
- Keynote Lecture – “Shi Tuo’s Hometown Story Series: Narrating Changes of Our Life-world,” School of Literary Studies, Shanghai Jiaotong University, November 2017
- Invited Presentation – “The Aesthetic Absolute and Socialist Subjectivity”, The Philosophical Letter through the Ages, Queen’s College, Oxford University, June 2016
- Invited Presentation – “Li Jieren’s Novel History of a Revolution”, Novel in or Against World Literature, Biennial Conference –Society for Novel Studies, Pittsburgh, May 13-15, 2016
- Keynote Lecture and Masterclass – “The Anthropological Turn and Novels of the 1930s”, Distinguished Guest lecture and Master-class series, School of Literature, Beijing Normal University, April 2015
- Invited Presentation – “The Province, Other Worlds and Revolution,” International Conference on Late Qing and Early Republican Chinese Overseas Students in Japan and Modern Chinese Literature, Kyushu University, Japan, March 2015
- Keynote Lecture – “Radical Aesthetics and Radical Politics of the Twentieth Century: Revolution, War and the Modern Chinese Novel”, Politics of the New Speakers Series, Centres of East Asian Studies and Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen, January 2014
- Keynote Lecture – “Routes, Process and Knowledge Change: Xiake Youji and Other Late Ming Journeys,” the Advanced Studies Institute of Social Science, Fudan University, December 2011
My Research Supervision
Areas of supervision
Postgraduate supervision interests: modern Chinese literature, comparative literature, cultural and intellectual history, Chinese cultural studies
Currently supervising
Meng Xia, PhD, History and Memory in Chinese New Immigrant Fiction
Haizhi Luo, PhD, The Modern Transformation of Classical-Style Chinese Poetry
Shiyue Zhou, PhD, The Chinese Ideogram and the Political Economy of Modernist Poetics
Yimin Xu, PhD, Gender Representation in Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction
Lihong Wu, PhD, Time Consciousness in Fin-de-siecle Twentieth-century Chinese Cinema
Yi He, PhD, The Body Narrative in Contemporary Chinese Avant-garde Fiction
Mengzi Liu, PhD, The Translation Activities of the Creation Society: a Sociological Perspective
My Teaching
Current undergraduate courses:
Contemporary Chinese Literature, City and Chinese Culture, Professional Chinese A, Professional Chinese B