Contact Information
2052 Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Building
707 S. Mathews Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801, U.S.A.
Research Interests
Premodern Chinese literature
Ming and Qing poetry
Chinese intellectual history
Trans-regional garden culture
Urban studies
Translation studies
Women and gender studies
Sino-Japanese literature relations
Research Description
My current project, “Written Gardens Revisited: Gender and Women’s Garden Poetry in Late Imperial China,” unites two stands of significant phenomenon in late imperial China: the newfound popularity of garden literature, and an unprecedented prominent tension between the male-dominated tradition of garden writing and the feminized nature of the garden space. Combining the methodologies of archival research and textual analysis from the fields of literature, women and gender studies, history, art history, and landscape architecture, this study explores how garden poetry enabled gentry women from the 17th to early 20th centuries to produce poetic spaces for multiple purposes and eventually carve a place for women’s voice in the subgenre of Chinese literature. It reveals that garden poems present multifaceted aspects of late imperial women’s changing lives and shed light on their experiences, roles, and aspirations. Many poems discussed in this study are translated into English and analyzed for the first time. Moreover, studying Chinese garden literature, through a gender lens, not only promotes the repositioning of women in world literature but also helps reveal the fullness of designed landscapes in cultural expression.
Education
PhD, Premodern Chinese Literature, UIUC (Secondary fields: Gender and Women in China, Landscape Architecture)
MA, Comparative Literature and World Literature, Fudan University (recommended for admission without exams; Shanghai Distinguished Graduate)
BA, Chinese Literature, Tongji University (recommended for admission by Principal; Shanghai Distinguished Graduate)
Grants
Dissertation Completion Fellowship, School of Literature, Culture & Linguistics, UIUC (2023)
Geiss Hsu Annual Conference Travel Grant for Scholars in Ming studies, the AAS Conference (2023)
Faculty Travel Grant, Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies, UIUC (2023)
Supplemental Summer Block Grant, SLCL, UIUC (2020)
Graduate College Travel Grants (2019 & 2020 & 2021)
EALC Graduate Student Travel Grant (2019 & 2023)
EALC Graduate Summer Research Fellowships (2019 & 2020 & 2021 & 2023)
Research Assistantships, UIUC (2018-2023)
Teaching Assistantships, UIUC (2018-2021)
National Scholarship, China (2017)
National Endeavor Fellowship, China (2014)
Awards and Honors
Ronald P. Toby Award for Best Paper in Pre-20th Century East Asian Studies (2022)
UIUC Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (2019 & 2020 & 2023)
Shanghai Distinguished Graduate (BA; MA)
Fudan University Excellent Student of the Year (2016)
Tongji University Excellent Student of the Year (2014)
Courses Taught
Lead instructor of Content courses:
EALC 550 Seminar-Mapping China: Nature and Landscape in Past and Present
EALC 425/TRST 430-Chinese Poetry and Translation
EALC 398/550-The Gendered Garden in Premodern Chinese Lit;
EALC 207/CWL 217-Classical Chinese Lit;
Lead instructor of Classical & Mandarin Chinese:
CHIN 407-Intro to Classical Chinese
CHIN408-Readings in Literary Chinese
CHIN 203/204-Intermediate Chinese I/II
CHIN 440-Fourth-Year Chinese I
Teaching Assistant of content course:
EALC/CWL 275-Masterpieces of East Asian Literature
Additional Campus Affiliations
Chinese Language Support Specialist, Program in Translation and Interpreting Studies, UIUC
Highlighted Publications
Articles and Book Chapter
Wang, Yuefan. “Ancient Literature as Subtexts: Literary Geography and the Imaginary Hong Kong in Dung Kai-Cheung’s V-City Tetralogy.” Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature (Fall 2024). (ESCI)
Wang, Yuefan. “Garden, Gender, and Memory: Shang Jinglan and Her Writings in the Ming-Qing Transition.” Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture 10, no. 1 (2023). (AHCI)
Liu, Ziyun, and Yuefan Wang. “Unquiet Qing: The Course of Lovesickness in the Modernization of Chinese Literature.” Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture 10, no. 2 (2023). (AHCI)
Wan, Yan, Yuefan Wang, and Tong Hanbing. “Travelling the Land.” (in Chinese) In Beyond Elegance: Aesthetic Philosophy in Chinese Classical Poetry. Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe (Forthcoming).
Book Reviews
Wang, Yuefan. "Review of The Cornucopian Stage: Performing Commerce in Early Modern China by Ariel Fox. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2023." (Forthcoming)
Wang, Yuefan. “The Field of the Hermeneutic Circle: Review of Reading Eileen Chang 詮釋循環之場域——評《 讀解張愛玲——華美蒼涼》." 粵海風, no. 2 (2021): 99-104.
English-Chinese Translated Articles
Wang, Yuefan, and Li Liu, trans. “Zhu Ziqing and Situational Poetics: Sounding Out an Alternative (By John A. Crespi) 朱自清與情境詩學:發出另一種解讀.” Journal of Literary Studies 文學, no.1 (2019): 42-54+297.
Wang, Yuefan, trans. “Ideas in Lyric Communication.” By Mark Payne. Classics and Interpretation (Forthcoming). (CSSCI)