WEI SHANG
Executive Committee Member
Du Family Professor of Chinese Culture in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University.
Research Interests
Pre-modern Chinese Literature, Cultural and Intellectual History of China, Ming and Qing Narrative Genres
Professor Wei Shang specializes in pre-modern Chinese literature and culture, especially fiction and drama of the Ming and Qing dynasties. His research interests also include print culture, book history and intellectual history of the same era. His book “Rulin Waishi” and Cultural Transformation in Late Imperial China addresses the role of Confucian ritualism and fiction in shaping the intellectual and cultural changes of the eighteenth-century. His other publications are concerned with Jin Ping Mei Cihua (The Plum in the Golden Vase), late Ming culture, fiction commentary, and medieval poetry. He is the co-editor of several volumes and a contributor to The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature.
Selected Publications
“The Formation of a Poly-Textual Novel: From The Water Margin to The Plum in the Golden Vase,” The Journal of Fudan University (2016)
Dynastic Crisis and Cultural Innovation: From the Late Ming to the Late Qing and Beyond (co-editor with David Der-wei Wang, Harvard University Asian Center, 2005)
Rulin Waishi and Cultural Transformation in Late Imperial China (Harvard University Asian Center, 2003)
