China

Zhao Tingyang is a Visiting Lecturer with the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. He is Great Wall Professor of Philosophy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a steering member of Transcultura European and a curator of its Chinese program. His research interests include political philosophy, ontology and ethics. 

Wuxiong Tian is a PhD candidate in the History Department at Peking University. He obtained his BA in History from Peking University in 2007. His research interests include Sino-North Korea relations, contemporary China studies and archival research. His dissertation focuses on the relationship among state, clan and local politics in the Guanzhong Region since 1949. He plans to complete his dissertation during his stay in HYI. 

Current Research Projects and Interests:
1.State, Clan and Local Politics in Guanzhong under Socialism: Hechi Village from 1949 to 1989
2.The Chinese Troop Withdrawal from North Korea in 1958 and the Sino-North Korea Relationship

Yu Jianrong received his PhD in 2001 in Legal Studies from Central China Normal University’s Rural Studies Research Center and joined the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Rural Development Institute (Beijing, China) in October 2001 as a full research fellow. He currently serves as Professor and Director of the Rural Development Institute’s Social Issues Research Center. He is the author of a prize-winning book on rural Chinese political change (岳村政治 -- 转型期中国乡村政治结构的变迁, Politics of Yue Village: Changes in the Political Structure in China’s Rural Villages in the Transition Period) and numerous influential works on rural protests and organized crime in the countryside.

Huijun Mai received her B.A. in liberal arts from Peking University with a concentration on classical Chinese literature. She has previously written papers on nostalgia in Northern Song literatus Su Shi's poetry and her graduate thesis was on the narrative of late Ming-Qing novels with virago themes. Her research interests include classical poetry, Ming-Qing novels and the history of literati artistic pursuits. Huijun is currently pursuing her A.M. in Regional Studies- East Asia (RSEA) as a Harvard-Yenching scholar at Harvard University.

Shuting Zhuang received her B.A. from the University of Hong Kong with a concentration on comparative literature and sociology. Her undergraduate thesis was on the volunteerism of NGOs in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan. Her research interests include ethnicity, volunteerism, and modernization with a focus on the anthropological study of moral experience in transition periods in China.

From 1998 to 2008, Qiao Jiyan studied economics and the economic history of the PRC at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. She then taught herself history. She is currently at Harvard to pursue her interest in Chinese intellectual history from a comparative perspective with  Mediterranean civilizations. 

Dingru Huang received her B.A. from Tsinghua University with a double major of Chinese literature and English.  She is currently pursuing her A.M at Harvard in the Regional Studies - East Asia program. Her research interests include modern sinophone fiction and poetry, especially cultural interaction between mainland China, Taiwan and Japan as reflected in literature.

Current Research Projects and Interests: Japanese intellectual history; Japanese modern history after the Meiji Restoration; Japanese religions

Xiangyang Long is a Chinese acquisitions librarian at Fudan University Library. He received his BA, MA and PhD in Literature from East China Normal University. His research focuses on Chinese Bibliography during the ROC and PRC periods.

Dr. Shen received her PhD in Sociology in 2005 from Nanjing University, and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University. Dr. Shen has taught “Introduction to Social Work" and “Medical Social Work” at the undergraduate level and “Mental Health” to postgraduates. Her research is in the fields of social work and sociology, with a specific focus on social work and social services in China, drug addiction rehabilitation, and services for the elderly and disabled children. During her stay at HYI, she plans to conduct research on Christian universities and the emergence of social services in modern China.