Xiaojue Wang is Associate Professor of Chinese Literature in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and Director of Graduate Studies in the Program in Comparative Literature. Her research interests are Chinese literature and culture from late imperial to contemporary periods, cultural Cold War studies in global Asias, Chinese-German intellectual connections, cultural memories, film and media studies, gender and sexuality, and comparative literature. She is the author of Modernity with a Cold War Face: Reimagining the Nation in Chinese Literature across the 1949 Divide (Harvard University Asia Center, 2013), which examines the diverse, dynamic cultural practices in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas across the 1949 Chinese divide, and re-positions modern Chinese literature in the global context of the Cold War.
Professor Wang is currently completing her second book, tentatively entitled The Edges of Literature: Eileen Chang and the Aesthetics of Deviation, which seeks to chart the Cold War cultural geography in the transpacific and global Asias. Centering on the prominent bilingual woman writer Eileen Chang, this study explores how Chang maneuvered between art and politics; colonialism, modernization, and cosmopolitanism; migration and expatriation; as well as high art, popular culture, and technology.
Her work has appeared in Verge: Studies in Global Asias, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), and MCLC Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, and numerous Chinese-language journals including Twenty-First Century, Modern Chinese Literature Studies, Dushu, Foreign Literature Review, etc. She is also the Chinese translator or co-translator of Jürgen Habermas’ Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit, Horkheimer Reader, Andreas Huyssen’s After the Great Divide: Modernism, Mass Culture, Postmodernism, and John Fiske’s Understanding Popular Culture, among others.
Education
- Ph.D. in Chinese and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
- M.Phil. in Comparative Literature, Columbia University
- M.A. in German Literature, Peking University
- B.A. in German Literature, Peking University
Areas of Specialization
- Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature
- The Cultural Cold War
- Late Qing Fiction
- Chinese-German intellectual connections
- Film and Media Studies
- Gender and Sexuality
- Comparative Literature
Books
Selected Articles and Book Chapters in English
- “Forgetting and Othering: Representing the War of Resistance,” Verge: Studies in Global Asias 5.2 (2019): 15-21.
- “Eileen Chang,” in Oxford History of the Novel in English (Volume 10). The Novel in South and South-East Asia, ed. Alex Tickell (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 481-494.
- “Radio Culture in Cold War Hong Kong,” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 20.8 (2018): 1153-1170.
- “Shen Congwen’s Journey: From Asylum to Museum,” in A New Literary History of Modern China, ed. David Der-wei Wang (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017), 544-550.
- “Borders and Borderlands Narratives in Cold War China,” in The Oxford Handbook of Modern Chinese Literatures, eds. Carlos Rojas and Andrea Bachner (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 334-355.
- “Feng Zhi’s 1949 Entsagung: Translating Rilke and Goethe Across the Cold War Divide in China,” in Un/Translatables: New Maps across Germanic Literatures, eds. Bethany Wiggin and Catriona MacLeod (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2016), 123-144.
- “Han Bangqing’s Novel and Urbanity in Late Qing Shanghai,” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 17.1 (March 2015).
- “Creation and Transmission: Eileen Chang and Sing-song Girls of Shanghai,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) 36 (2014): 125-148.
- “Picturing the Specter of History: Zhang Ailing’s Visual Practice,” in On Writing With Photography, eds. Karen Beckman and Liliane Weissberg (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2013), 231-253.
- “Stone in Modern China: Literature, Politics, and Culture,” in Approaches to Teaching The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber), eds. Andrew Schonebaum and Tina Lu (Modern Language Association, 2012), 413-426.
- “Eileen Chang, Dream of the Red Chamber, and the Cold War,” in Eileen Chang: Romancing Languages, Cultures, and Genres, ed. Kam Louie (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2012), 113-129.
- “From Asylum to Museum: The Discourse of Insanity and Schizophreniain Shen Congwen’s 1949 Transition,” MCLC Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Volume 23, Number 1 (Spring 2011): 133-168.
- “Memory, Photographic Seduction, and Allegorical Correspondence: Eileen Chang’s Mutual Reflections,” Rethinking Modern Chinese Popular Culture: Cannibalizations of the Canon, eds. Carlos Rojas and Eileen Chow (London and New York: Routledge, 2009; paperback 2011), 190-206.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters in Chinese
- “測繪冷戰文化地形圖：張愛玲與《秧歌》” [Mapping Cold War Cultural Topography: Eileen Chang and The Rice-Sprout Song], Twenty-First Century, no. 184, April 2021, 92-110.
- “中国现代诗歌中的风景观” [The Rise of Landscape in Modern Chinese Poetry], Modern Literary Magazine, no. 3, 2020, 35-41.
- “風景與自然：論馮至的山水寫作” [Nature and Landscape: The Landscape Poetry of Feng Zhi], Modern Chinese Literature (THCI, Taiwan Humanities Citation Index), no. 36, December 2019, 59-76.
- “聆听张爱玲” [Listening In: Eileen Chang and the Urban Soundscape], Modern Chinese Literature Studies (CSSCI journal), no. 6, 2018, 79-91.
- “去冷战批评与中国文学现代性” [De-Cold War Criticism and Chinese Literary Modernity], Southern Cultural Forum (CSSCI journal), no. 6, 2018, 60-65.
- “冷战华语文学的疆域叙事” [A Return to the Frontier: Sinophone Literature in the Cold War Era], Wenxue (Literature), November 2017, 82-90.
- “電影、收音機與市聲：張愛玲與聲音景觀”[Radio, Cinema and City Sound: Eileen Chang and the Soundscape], in 再探張愛玲學 [Eileen Chang Reader], ed. Chin Chow Lim (Taipei: Linking Press, 2018), 225-246.
- “性別，城市與敘事結構：重讀《海上花列傳》” [Gender, the City, and the Narrative Structure: A Re-reading of Sing-song Girls of Shanghai], in 從摩羅到諾貝爾：文學，經典，現代意識 [From Mara to Nobel: Literature, Canon and Modernity], ed. Ko Chia cian and Cheng Yu-yu (Taipei: Rye Field, 2015), 348-362.
- “道德魅惑、殖民身份與現代性焦慮：1949年中國大分裂前後” [Rethinking the 1949 Divide: Beyond Ethical Sentimentalism and Colonial Anxiety], in 台灣及其脈絡 [Taiwan and Its Contexts], eds. Ping-hui Liao, Kang-I Sun Chang, and David Der-wei Wang (Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2012), 141-157.
- “文學、文物、與博物館：論沈從文1949年的轉折” [Literature, Antiques, and Museum: On Shen Congwen’s 1949 Conversion], in 中國現代小說的史與學：向夏志清先生致敬 [On History of Modern Chinese Fiction: Essays in Honor of C. T. Hsia], ed. David Der-wei Wang (Taipei: Linking Books, 2010), 363-381.
- “政治、艺术与艺术的政治化：阅读1930年代的本亚明” [Politics, Art, and Politicized Art: Reading Walter Benjamin of the 1930s],《视界》Horizon, no. 2 (2003): 30-52; also included in 跨文化语境中的比较文学 [Comparative Literature in the Cross-cultural Context], eds. Wang Jiezhi and Tang Jianqing (Nanjing: Yilin Press, 2004).
- “沈从文与北京” [Shen Congwen in Beijing: Modernity and Crisis], 《读书》Dushu Readings, no. 1 (2004): 31-40; excerpts reprinted in《当代作家评论》 Contemporary Writers Review, no. 2 (2004): 157-158.
- “租界、青楼与现代性症候：阅读《海上花列传》” [Concession, Courtesan House and Contestation of the “Modern”: Reading Han Bangqing’s Haishanghua liezhuan], in 晚明与晚清：历史传承与文化创新 [From the Late Ming to the Late Qing: Historical Dynamics and Cultural Innovations], eds. Chen Pingyuan, David Der-wei Wang and Wei Shang (Wuhan: Hubei jiaoyu Press, 2002), 323-332.
- “启蒙时期的德国国家小说” [Staatsroman in Enlightenment],《外国文学评论》Foreign Literature Review, no. 2 (1999): 38-44.
- “《蓝色》: 爱的色彩与主题” [Blue: Color and Subject of Love ¾ An Analysis of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Film Blue],《当代电影》Contemporary Cinema, no. 5 (1998): 85-87; reprinted in《艺术广角》Art Panorama, no. 3 (1998): 46-50.
- “贡特·艾希的诗歌及诗作《夏日的结束》” [On Günter Eich’s poetry and An Interpretation of Ende eines Sommers],《国外文学》Foreign Literatures Quarterly, no. 3 (1996): 101-105.
Courses Taught
- Cold War Chinese Literature and Film (01:165:482/16:217:532)
- Cultural Memory in Contemporary China (01:165:480/16:217:534)
- Women in Modern Chinese Literature and Film (01:165:486/16:217:536)
- Modern Chinese Literature in Translation (01:165:310)
- Chinese Cinema (01:165:262)
Selected Awards and Distinctions
- Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Scholar Grant, 2018-2019
- Rutgers Global International Travel Grant, 2018-2019
- University Research Council Publication Subvention, Rutgers University, 2017-2018
- University Research Council Research Grant, Rutgers University, 2016-2017; 2018-2019
- Modernity with a Cold War Face won Best Book Award (Academic Book), Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), 2014
- An Wang Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, 2012-2013
- Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinology Conference Grant, 2010-2015
- Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange Junior Scholar Grant, 2009-2010
- Wu Foundation Fellowship, 2005
- DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Fellowship at Freie Universität Berlin, 2003
