Humboldt research award winner set to visit Münster University
Tian Xiaofei, Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University in Cambridge, USA, has received a Humboldt research award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This coveted award will enable her to spend time doing research at the Institute of Sinology and East Asian Studies at the University of Münster. Tian Xiaofei opted to go to this Institute because it is one of the few in Germany which has a research focus on the literature of mid-Imperial China (approximately 3rd to 10th centuries CE). For this reason, it has an exceptionally well-equipped library for this area of research. Tian Xiaofei’s hosts are the Institute’s Director, Prof. Kerstin Storm, and her predecessor, Prof. Reinhard Emmerich, who now holds a senior professorship. The research stay is set to begin in October 2023 and last around eight months.
Tian Xiaofei, who has been living in the US for 30 years and publishes in English and Chinese, is regarded as an outstandingly productive researcher; her publications have also received very positive reviews internationally. One focus of her work is the poetry of the mid-Imperial period. “Tian Xiaofei also demonstrates political commitment and the courage to criticise the People’s Republic of China which, increasingly, is silencing critical voices,” says Reinhard Emmerich. “She also addresses sensitive topics such as the Cultural Revolution, giving them space in her teaching and publications.” Tian Xiaofei is seen as a literary figure beyond the bounds of her research.
During her stay at Münster University, Tian Xiaofei plans to work on the literary treatment of traumas and the reciprocal influence of trauma and literature in the early 7th century CE. In doing so, she will be attempting to open up a field of research for the mid-Imperial period which has not yet been investigated. “Her stay here will intensify exchanges related to our own research,” adds Kerstin Storm, “and, ideally, strengthen literature as a research focus in Sinology in Germany. Over the past 20 years, this has been relegated to the background because more attention was given to politics and business.”