Bio


William Haas Professor in Chinese Studies, Stanford University
Departments of East Asian Languages and Comparative Literature
Yangtze River Chair Professor, Simian Institute of Advanced Study,
East China Normal University

Academic Appointments


  • Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures

Administrative Appointments


  • The President's Fellowship in the Humanities, University of California, Los Angeles (1990 - 1992)
  • Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies, State University of New York System (SUNY), Stony Brook (1993 - 1998)
  • Associate Professor, Comparative Studies, State University of New York System (SUNY), Stony Brook (1998 - 2000)
  • Associate Professor, Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Rutgers U (2000 - 2003)
  • Research fellow, Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, Rutgers University (2001 - 2002)
  • Visiting Associate Professor in Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Harvard University (2002 - 2002)
  • Professor, Asian and Comparative Literature, Rutgers University (2004 - 2007)
  • Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica (2005 - 2005)
  • Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University (2007 - 2007)
  • Professor, Chinese and Comparative Literature, Stanford University (2007 - Present)
  • The William Haas Chair Professor in Chinese Studies, Stanford University (2008 - Present)
  • Visiting Professor, International Summer Inst., Seoul National University (2009 - 2009)
  • The Yangtze River Chair Professor, East China Normal University (2009 - Present)
  • Shinhan Distinguished Visiting Professor, Yonsei University, Korea (2018 - 2018)

Honors & Awards


  • Fellowship award, National Endowment for the Humanities (2000)
  • New York State Professional Development & Quality of Working Life Award, New York State Professional Development & Quality of Working Life (1999)
  • New York State Professional Development & Quality of Working Life Award, New York State Professional Development & Quality of Working Life (1998)
  • Junior Faculty Research Award, School of Arts and Sciences, Stony Brook (1996)
  • NY State /United University Professions Term Faculty Development Award, NY State /United University Professions Term Faculty Development (1995)
  • Hugh Vollrath Ross Scholarship, University of Iowa (1989-1990)
  • Award by the Journal Translations (Yilin) for translation, Journal Translations (Yilin) for translation, China (1984)

Program Affiliations


  • Center for East Asian Studies

Professional Education


  • B. A., Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, English Literature (1982)
  • M. A., Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, Comparative Literature (1985)
  • Ph.D., University of Iowa, Iowa City, Comparative Literature (1990)
  • Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Comparative Literature (1993)

2023-24 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Huang Shizhong's Death BIG CHEAT (DA MA BIAN) Wang, B., Hui, W., Kwong, L. S. 2023; 30: 149-152
  • Kang Changsu Holds a Grudge in Plotting against the Empress-Dowager; Tan Sitong Is Tricked by False Pretenses into Going to the Imperial Capital BIG CHEAT (DA MA BIAN) Wang, B., Hui, W., Kwong, L. S. 2023; 30: 103-111
  • In Pursuit of Scholarship, Zhu Yixin Calls Attention to Historical Origins; His Life Abruptly Cut Short, Chen Qianqiu Goes Prematurely to His Grave BIG CHEAT (DA MA BIAN) Wang, B., Hui, W., Kwong, L. S. 2023; 30: 48-56
  • Art, Labor, and Ecology in Han Song's "Regenerated Bricks" CHINESE LITERATURE AND THOUGHT TODAY Wang, B. 2022; 53 (3-4): 6-16
  • The Clash of Civilization and World Community: The West and China TELOS Wang, B. 2022: 48-56

    View details for DOI 10.3817/0622199048

    View details for Web of Science ID 000818564100005

  • Old Dreams Retold Lu Xun as Mytho-ecological Writer PRISM-THEORY AND MODERN CHINESE LITERATURE Wang, B. 2020; 17 (2): 225-243
  • Aesthetics, Morality, and the Modern Community: Wang Guowei, Cai Yuanpei, and Lu Xun CRITICAL INQUIRY Wang, B. 2020; 46 (3): 496–514

    View details for DOI 10.1086/708078

    View details for Web of Science ID 000526627900003

  • Dignity of Labour AFTERLIVES OF CHINESE COMMUNISM: POLITICAL CONCEPTS FROM MAO TO XI Wang Ban, Sorace, C., Franceschini, Loubere, N. 2019: 73-+
  • Confucianism and Nature: Ecological Motifs in Kang Youwei's Great Community TELOS Wang, B. 2018: 47–67

    View details for DOI 10.3817/0618183047

    View details for Web of Science ID 000435146000004

  • Staging Chinese Revolution: Theater, Film, and the Afterlives of Propaganda (Book Review) CHINA INFORMATION Book Review Authored by: Wang, B. 2018; 32 (1): 165–67
  • The People in the Modern Chinese Novel: Popular Democracy and World Literature NOVEL-A FORUM ON FICTION Wang, B. 2014; 47 (1): 43-56
  • Chinese Modern China Review International Wang, B. 2013
  • Photographical History, Everyday Life, and Memory: Wang Anyi as a Storyteller JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY Wang, B. 2012; 25 (2): 183-198
  • Geopolitics, Moral Reform, and Poetics of Internationalism: Liang Qichao’s The Future of New China Frontiers of Literary Studies Wang, B. 2012; 6 (1): 2-18
  • From Burke and Wordsworth to the Modern Sublime in Chinese Literature Comparative Literature Studies Wang, B. 2012; 4: 49
  • Human Rights, Revolutionary Legacy, and Politics in China BOUNDARY 2-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND CULTURE Ban, W. 2011; 38 (1): 135-163
  • The 'heart of time': Moral agency in twentieth-century Chinese fiction (Book Review) HARVARD JOURNAL OF ASIATIC STUDIES Book Review Authored by: Wang, B. 2008; 68 (1): 256-261
  • In Search of Real-Life Images in China: realism in the age of spectacle JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY CHINA Wang, B. 2008; 17 (56): 497-512
  • Discovering Enlightenment in Chinese history: The 'Rise of Modern Chinese Thought', by Wang Hui BOUNDARY 2-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND CULTURE Wang, B. 2007; 34 (2): 217-238
  • Kung Fu Cult Master Film Quarterly Wang, B. 2007
  • Epic Narrative, Authenticity, and the Memory of Realism: Reflections on Jia Zhangke’s Platform Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution Wang, B. edited by Lee, C. K., Yang, G. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. 2007: 193–216
  • The Tree Within the Forest: The Wonderful Culture of Rivers and Lakes The Jin Yong Phenomenon: Chinese Martial Arts Fiction and Modern Chinese Literary History Wang, B. edited by Huss, A., Liu, J. Youngstown, New York: Cambria Press. 2007: Iv-Xiii
  • History and Memory in the Shadows of Globalization (in Chinese). Wang, B. Nanjing, China: Nanjing University Press. 2007
  • Re-enchanting the Image in Global Culture: Reification and Nostalgia in Zhu Tianwen’s Fiction Writing Taiwan Wang, B. edited by Wang, D., Rojas, C. 2007: 370–388
  • Bringing the world home: Appropriating the West in late Qing and early republican China. (Book Review) AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Book Review Authored by: Wang, B. 2006; 111 (4): 1151-1151
  • The clash of empires: The invention of China in modern world making. (Book Review) COMPARATIVE LITERATURE Book Review Authored by: Wang, B. 2006; 58 (2): 177-180
  • History and Memory in the Shadows of Globalization (in Chinese) Wang, B. New, expanded edition of History and Memory above. 2006
  • One China, Many Paths Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Wang, B. 2006
  • Chinese aesthetics and literature: A reader (Book Review) CHINA REVIEW-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL ON GREATER CHINA Book Review Authored by: Wang, B. 2005; 5 (2): 201-204
  • Reimagining political community: Diaspora, nation-state, and the struggle for recognition MODERN DRAMA Wang, B. 2005; 48 (2): 249-271
  • Documentary as Haunting of the Real: The Logic of Capital in Blind Shaft Asian Cinema Wang, B. 2005; 16 (1): 4-15
  • Reclaiming Literature as Public Forum Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies Wang, B. 2005; 31 (2): 3-14
  • Feminist Utopian Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Chinese and English Fiction China Review International Wang, B. 2005; 12 (1)
  • The Chinese postmodern: Trauma and irony in Chinese avant-garde fiction. (Book Review) JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES Book Review Authored by: Wang, B. 2004; 63 (3): 789-790
  • Writing, Self, and Other: Chateaubriand and his Atala Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism Wang, B. 2004; 22 (2)
  • Tradition, Modernity, and Critical Historical Consciousness: Lu Xun’s Reflections on History Interpretation and Intellectual Change Wang, B. edited by Tu, C. New Brunswick and London: Transaction Press. 2004: 241–256
  • Illuminations from the Past: Trauma, Memory, and History in Modern China Wang, B. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2004
  • From Traumatic Paralysis to the Force Field of Modernity: An Introduction Trauma and Cinema Kaplan, A., Wang, B. edited by Kaplan, A., Wang, B. Hong Kong University Press. 2004: 1–23
  • To Show or Not to Show: The Use of Film in Teaching Cross-Cultural Courses Visual Media and the Humanities: A Pedagogy of Representation Wang, B. edited by McBride, K. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press. 2004: 277–294
  • Trauma, Visuality, and History in Chinese Literature and Film Trauma and Cinema Wang, B. edited by Kaplan, A., Wang, B. Hong Kong University Press. 2004: 219–241
  • History and Memory: A Critique of Global Modernity Wang, B. Kong: Oxford University Press. 2004
  • Masculinity Besieged The Journal of Asian and African Studies Wang, B. 2003; 38 (1)
  • History in a Mythical Key: Temporality, Memory, and Tradition in Wang Anyi’s Fiction Journal of Contemporary China Wang, B. 2003; 13 (37): 609-625
  • Black Holes of Globalization: Critique of the New Millennium in Taiwan Cinema Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Wang, B. 2003; 15 (1): 90-119
  • The Banality of Violence: Globalization, Hong Kong, and Remembrance of the Past Comparative Literature in Cross-Cultural Context Wang, B. edited by Cheng, A. Nanjing: Yiling Press. 2003: 126–140
  • Revolutionary Realism and Revolutionary Romanticism The Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature Wang, B. edited by Mostow, J. New York: Columbia UP. 2003: 470–475
  • The Cold War, Imperial Aesthetics, and Area Studies Social Text Wang, B. 2002; 72 (2): 45-65
  • Fantasy, Mythology, and History: Walter Benjamin's Critique of History and his Arcade Project” (“Menghuan, shenhua yu lishi: benyaming de lish guan”) Shijie (horizons) Wang, B. 2002: 190-200
  • Between Tradition and Modernity The Lyrical Lu Xun Wang, B. 2002; 4
  • Narrative Perspective and Irony in Chinese and American Fiction Wang, B. New York: The Edwin Mellen Pre. 2002
  • Love at last sight: Nostalgia, commodity, and temporality in Wang Anyi's 'Song of Unending Sorrow' POSITIONS-EAST ASIA CULTURES CRITIQUE Wang, B. 2002; 10 (3): 669-694
  • Historical Trauma in Multinational Cinemas: Thinking History with Trauma Tamkang Review Wang, B. 2001; 30 (4): 59-84
  • The Crisis of Literature and the Market (“Wenxue weiji yu shichang”) Shanghai Literature (Shanghai wenxue) Wang, B. 2001; 6: 70-71
  • Memory, narcissism, and sublimation: Reading Lou Andreas-Salome's 'Freud Journal' AMERICAN IMAGO Wang, B. 2000; 57 (2): 215-234
  • From Historical Narrative to the World of Prose: The Essayistic Mode in Contemporary Chinese Literature The Modern Chinese Literary Essay: Defining the Chinese Self in the 20th Century Wang, B. edited by Bochum, M. W. Germany: Bochum UP. 2000: 173–188
  • The Aesthetic of the Aura Shuxie Taiwan Wang, B. edited by Chou, Y., Liu, J. Taipei: Rye Field Press. 2000: 343–359
  • Between Historical Memory and Mirages of the Commodity (Zai lishi jiyi yu shangpin huangxiang jian paihuai). Shijie (horizons) Wang, B. 2000; 1: 173-181
  • Trauma and History in Chinese Film: Reading The Blue Kite against Melodrama Modern Chinese Literature and Culture Wang, B. 1999: 125-155
  • The Problematic of Self in Modern Chinese Literature Comparative Literature Wang, B. 1999
  • Chinese Modernism in the Era of Reforms Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews Wang, B. 1998; 20
  • Memory as History: Making Sense of the Past in Contemporary Chinese Fiction American Journal of Chinese Studies Wang, B. 1998; 5: 301-319
  • Translingual practice: Literature, national culture, and translated modernity - China, 1900-1937 - Liu,L (Book Review) COMPARATIVE LITERATURE Book Review Authored by: Wang, B. 1997; 49 (3): 283-285
  • Writing, self, and other: Chateaubriand and his 'Atala' FRENCH FORUM Wang, B. 1997; 22 (2): 133-148
  • Bie qiu xinsheng yu yibang (Seeking new voice in foreign lands) Dushu Wang, B. 1997
  • Censored by Confucius: Ghost Stories Asian Thought and Society Wang, B. 1996; 21 (62)
  • Scenes for Mandarins Asian Thought and Society Wang, B. 1996; 21 (62)
  • The Sublime Subject of History and Desublimation in Contemporary Chinese Narrative Comparative Literature Wang, B. 1995; 47 (4): 330-353
  • Narrating against the Grain: A Structural Ambiguity in Classical Chinese Fiction Journal of Asian Culture Wang, B. 1994: 99–126
  • The political unconscious of Wang Guowei's notion of the sublime Xueren (scholar) Wang, B. 1994; 2: 551-571
  • INSCRIBED WILDERNESS IN CHATEAUBRIAND 'ATALA' ROMANCE NOTES Wang, B. 1993; 33 (3): 279-287
  • I ON THE RUN, CRISIS OF IDENTITY IN 'MRS. DALLOWAY' + WOOLF,V. MODERN FICTION STUDIES Wang, B. 1992; 38 (1): 177-191
  • Allegory vs.Symbol: Reading Benjamin's Theory of Allegory through Hegel Prosthesis Wang, B. 1992; 1: 89-105
  • The Real Under Scrutiny: The Cutting Edge of Chinese Fantastic Narrative Tamkang Review Wang, B. 1990; 21 (2): 149-165
  • Aspects of Poetics Today Foreign Literatures Wang, B. 1988; 2
  • Transparent Minds Foreign Literatures Wang, B. 1987; 6
  • Biography: Fiction, Fact and Form Foreign Literatures Wang, B. 1987; 5
  • A High Brow Detective Story Foreign Literatures Wang, B. 1986; 6
  • Auerbach's Mimesis Reconsidered Foreign Literatures Wang, B. 1986; 1
  • A Pearl on the Moonlit Lake: An Anthology of Foreign Poems Foreign Literatures Wang, B. 1986; 3
  • Worlds from Words Book Review Wang, B. 1985; 7: 142-143