David Wang

Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Chinese Studies (2013-2014)

The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Chinese Studies is one of the leading voices in the study of China within the U.K. Ambitious in its scope, the initiative holds Visiting Professorships that engage with many aspects of a country and culture that has become of increasing global importance, yet has not traditionally received the study it merits. The Visiting Professorship in Chinese Studies is hosted by St Catherine’s College, Oxford. It has been made possible by the generous support of Sir David Tang.

David Wang is Edward Henderson Professor in Chinese Literature at Harvard University, Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies, and Academician, Academia Senica

David Wang’s Humanitas Visiting Professorship asked What is Chinese about Chinese Literature?

His opening lecture, From Mara Poet to Nobel Laureate: On Modern Chinese Literary Culture, examined modern Chinese literature not as a corpus of texts but as a constellation of tastes, discourses, occasions, and productions contested by historical dynamics.

Professor Wang’s second lecture, The Lyrical in Epic Time: On Modern Chinese Literary Thought, proposed that we rethink the critical paradigm of modern Chinese literature in terms of “literary thought”.

His closing lecture, Sailing to the Sinophone World: On Modern Chinese Literary Cartography, examined the recent developments of Sinophone Studies and offered reflections on their theoretical premises and geopolitical implications.

David Wang’s Humanitas tenure ended with a symposium entitled On the Chineseness of Chinese Literature, in which Qian Jun (University of Newcastle), Michel Hockx (SOAS), Julia Lovell (Birbeck College, University of London), Susan Daravula (University of Cambridge), and Hans van de Ven (University of Cambridge) offered responses and rebuttals to the lectures, focusing on the question: is the modern Chinese language a suitable medium for modern Chinese literature?