Biography
My research centers around the history and methodology of modern Chinese literary criticism. It draws on literary theory, aesthetics, linguistics, and studies of the history of the global Cold War, especially Sino-Soviet relations and US public diplomacy in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
My current book project is tentatively titled Chinese Literary Style: Aesthetic Judgment in the Cold War Era. It is an intellectual history of how prominent Chinese critics use the concept of “style” to advance their ideological and value judgment about their national literature. Style is an enigma in several branches of the Humanities, an elusive concept that scholars struggle to define. Nonetheless, in Chinese literary criticism, both classical and modern, an interest persists in evaluating the styles of major authors and works. My study identifies an archive of discourses on style in Chinese literary criticism and shows that elite intellectuals utilize these discourses to embellish their aesthetic judgment with an impression of authority. As an extension of the project, I am generally interested in problems about style and stylistics in any artistic medium.
My other research and teaching interests include Lu Xun; martial arts fiction in post-war Hong Kong; modern fiction set in early China; visual and mass culture.