Our Association was founded in the 1980s, by a group of graduate students in the United States, to address the position of Chinese literary studies as a field wedged between Asian Studies and Comparative Literature.
The founding of our Association was inspired by a 1987 visit of Prof. Dai Jinhua, the founding president of the Chinese Comparative Literature Association (CCLA), to the United States. Prof. Dai and Eugene Eoyang, then teaching at Indiana University, decided to launch an American chapter of CCLA—the predecessor of our Association—and placed Chen Xiaomei (then a graduate student of Prof. Eoyang) and Wu Beiling (a student of Prof. Dai then at Northwestern University) in charge of the chapter. Henry Y. Zhao, recently graduated from UC Berkeley, was named President and Wu Beiling became vice president. Zhao soon left the United States to take up a position at SOAS, and Chen Xiaomei became the second president.
During these early years, most members were graduate students or recent PhDs. The chapter did not initially convene conferences, but Wu Beiling ran a small printing business from her Chicago home, and started The Chinese Comparatist as the chapter’s organ of publication and communication. The Chinese Comparatist was one of the earliest scholarly publications dedicated to Chinese literary studies in the West. Due to Wu Beiling’s untimely death, the journal ceased publication after three issue.
[To be continued]
Biennial Meetings and Past Presidents
The founding of our Association was inspired by a 1987 visit of Prof. Dai Jinhua, the founding president of the Chinese Comparative Literature Association (CCLA), to the United States. Prof. Dai and Eugene Eoyang, then teaching at Indiana University, decided to launch an American chapter of CCLA—the predecessor of our Association—and placed Chen Xiaomei (then a graduate student of Prof. Eoyang) and Wu Beiling (a student of Prof. Dai then at Northwestern University) in charge of the chapter. Henry Y. Zhao, recently graduated from UC Berkeley, was named President and Wu Beiling became vice president. Zhao soon left the United States to take up a position at SOAS, and Chen Xiaomei became the second president.
During these early years, most members were graduate students or recent PhDs. The chapter did not initially convene conferences, but Wu Beiling ran a small printing business from her Chicago home, and started The Chinese Comparatist as the chapter’s organ of publication and communication. The Chinese Comparatist was one of the earliest scholarly publications dedicated to Chinese literary studies in the West. Due to Wu Beiling’s untimely death, the journal ceased publication after three issue.
[To be continued]
Biennial Meetings and Past Presidents