Position:
Research Associate
Faculty:
Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Email:
wb363@cam.ac.uk
Research Centres & Projects:
TEXTCOURT
Biography:
William is a scholar of Chinese literature. His current monograph project explores the composition of Qian Zhongshu’s encyclopaedic masterpiece of classical criticism, Guanzhui bian (Limited Views), through the lens of genetic criticism. By demonstrating the many ways in which Qian drew on his private notebooks from the secrecy of a store cupboard during the Cultural Revolution, this study throws light on the dramatic origins of one of the last major works in the literary Chinese canon, while also pioneering the study of modern Chinese autograph manuscripts, a hitherto neglected field of literary inquiry.
William has also researched and written about Jesuit translations of the Chinese classics, and the role of Chinese theatre in early Sino-Anglo diplomacy. He is currently a Research Fellow at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, where he is beginning a project on the state sponsored collection of folk songs in the wake of the Cultural Revolution.
Educational Background:
DPhil, Oxon (2025)
M.A., SOAS (2019)
B.A., Camtab (2010)
Research Interests:
Genetic Criticism, History of Sinology, Chinese Oral Literature
Recent publications:
“‘Only My Words Written Here Will Remain’: The Journey from ‘Avant-Textes’ to ‘Avant-Propos’ in Qian Zhongshu’s Collaboration with C.D. Le Gros Clark,” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR), No. 46 (2024): 129–148.
“Strategies of (Mis)translation in Alexandre de Lacharme’s Confucii Chi-king sive Liber Carminum,” Monumenta Serica, No. 74/1 (June, 2026): [forthcoming]
“Laou Seng-Uhr, and the Imperial Politics of Chinese Theatre in Early Sino-Anglo Diplomacy,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Accepted and Forthcoming.
“Ascendant Peace over the Four Seas,” (translation from Classical Chinese to English, with critical introduction) in Tian Yuan Tan and Ewan McDonald ed., Behind the Scenes in the Forbidden City: Chinese Court Drama 1600-1800[working title; under contract with Exeter University Press]
Links:
https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/people/william-blythe
