Wilt L. Idema obtained his BA and MA from Leiden University (The Netherlands). Following continued study and research in Japan and Hong Kong, he returned to Leiden to teach. He obtained his doctorate in 1974, and was promoted to Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in 1976. From 2000 to 2013 he taught at Harvard as Professor of Chinese literature. His research was originally focused on traditional vernacular fiction, but later shifted to early traditional drama and popular ballads and tales. He has also published on women’s literature of the premodern period. His publications of the last ten years include The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China (with Beata Grant, 2004); Personal Salvation and Filial Piety: Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her Acolytes (2007); Meng Jiangnü Brings Down the Great Wall: Ten Versions of a Chinese Legend (2008); Heroines of Jiangyong: Chinese Narrative Ballads in Women’s Script (2009); The White Snake and her Son (2009); Judge Bao and the Rule of Law: Eight Ballad-Stories from the Period 1250-1450 (2010); Monks, Bandits, Lovers and Immortals: Eleven Early Chinese Plays (with Stephen H. West, 2010); The Butterfly Lovers: The Legend of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (2010); Escape from Blood Pond Hell: The Tales of Mulian and Woman Huang (with Beata Grant, 2011); Battles, Betrayals, and Brotherhood: Early Chinese Plays on the Three Kingdoms (with Stephen H. West, 2012); The Generals of the Yang Family: Four Early Plays (with Stephen H. West, 2013); and The Resurrected Skeleton: From Zhuangzi to Lu Xun (2014).