Biography

I’m a scholar of medieval Chinese literature and cultural history (220–1300), I specialize in classical poetry and poetics, lyric, and prose. My research explores the intersections of literary writing, material culture, and everyday practices. Recent publications examine medieval Chinese catalogs, court poetry, and the poetics of time in garden and horticultural imaginaries. My first monograph (in preparation), Poets in the Kitchen, unravels the entanglement of culinary history, gustatory experience, and poetic culture in eleventh through thirteenth century China.

I currently serve on the editorial boards of Postmedieval and Zhongguo shixue yanjiu nianjian 中國詩學研究年鑒 [Annals of Research in Chinese Poetry and Poetics]. As a host for the New Books Network, I interview authors of recent monographs on premodern Chinese literature and cultural history. Please reach out to pitch ideas for potential publications and interviews.

Beyond traditional academic venues, I am committed to making scholarship accessible through public-facing publications and lectures. Whether in research, teaching, or writing, I am guided by the conviction that literature as humanistic inquiry—cultivated through attentive reading and creative writing—fundamentally shapes how we understand and inhabit our world.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Chapters

“Weiwu zhiyi: pulu yu bei Song tanwu wenhua” 微物之義：譜錄與北宋談物文化 [The Meaning of Small Things], in 宇文所安教授榮休紀念論文集 [Festschrift for Professor Stephen Owen], edited by Hong Yue 洪越, Sanlian Chubanshe, 2025, pp. 320–51.

“Gardening Time: Horticulture and meditations on time in Song (960–1279) China,” Postmedieval, 14.4 (2023): 749- 771.

“Technology of Enchantment: Writing and Religious Theatre at Huizong’s Court,” Nanyang Zhonghua wenxue yu wenhua xuebao (NJCLC), 4 (2023): 64–93.

“The Double Life of the Scallop: Anthropomorphic Biography, Pulu and the Northern Song Discourse on Things,” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, 49 (2020):149–205.

“Ruhe guiqu: tan Liu Yong de jishou jilu xingyi ci” 如何歸去──談柳永的幾首羈旅行役詞 [ On Liu Yong’s Travel Lyrics], Wenshi zhishi 文史知識, 11 (2013).

Translations

Zhishi yishou ge: shiyi shiji zhi shi’er shiji zaoqi ci 只是一首歌: 十一世紀至十二世紀早期詞, co-translation (with Feiran Du & Chen Liu) of Stephen Owen, Just A Song: Chinese Lyrics from the Eleventh and Early Twelfth Century (Harvard University, 2019). Beijing: Sanlian Chubanshe, 2022.

Critical Surveys

Huijun Mai and Lili Xia, “A Critical Survey of Song Dynasty Literary Research in North America, 2000–2024, Part 1” 北米における直近二十年の宋代文學研究についての評述（上）, translated by Ai Harada. Nippon Sōdai bungaku gakkaihō 日本宋代文學學會報 (Bulletin of Japanese Society of Song Period Chinese Literature), Vol. 11 (2024) pp. 87–111.

“Zhongguo shixue yanjiu baogao (Beimei)” 中國詩學研究报告（北美） (Annual Report of Classical Chinese Poetry and Poetics Studies in North America), in Zhongguo shixue yanjiu baogao 2022, Anhui: Anhui Shifan Daxue Chubanshe, 2023.

Podcasts

Interview on New Books Network with Timothy Brook, on Brook, The Price of Collapse: The Little Ice Age and the Fall of Ming Dynasty (Princeton University Press, 2023). Nov 3, 2023.

Interview on New Books Network with Thomas Kelly, on Kelly, The Inscription of Things: Writing and Materiality in Early Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2023).

Interview on New Books Network with Huan Jin, on Jin, The Collapse of Heaven: The Taiping Civil War and Chinese Literature and Culture, 1850-1880 (Harvard University Asia Center, 2024)