Fall 2019 Awards

The James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of its fall 2019 awards, made in support of publications and projects that confirm its mission.

In the category of publication subventions:

Columbia University Press, The Diary of 1636: The Second Manchu Invasion of Korea, translated by George L. Kallander

Columbia University Press, Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge: Two Memoirs About Courtesans, translated and edited by Wai-yee Li

University of Washington Press, Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China, by Ian Miller

University of Washington Press, Further Adventures on the Journey to the West, translated and annotated by Robert Hegel and Qiancheng Li 

In the category of projects:

An Intercalary Conference on Late Imperial China, Scholars of the Southeast USA, Principal Investigator, Maria Franca Sibau (Emory University), with Karin Myhre (University of Georgia), and Ihor Pidhainy (University of West Georgia)

The deadline for the next round of publications is March 1, 2020.

New Web Site

The James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation has a new web site! Please visit to learn more about the Foundation’s mission, the types of supported activities, and upcoming deadlines to apply for awards.

Sign up for the new email newsletter to keep informed about application deadlines, projects funded by the Geiss Hsu Foundation, and other news of interest to scholars of Ming China and related topics.

Exile to the Stage

Congratulations to Columbia University Press, which received a spring subvention award for its forthcoming publication, Exile to the Stage: Costuming and Personhood in Early Qing Drama, by Guojun Wang, assistant professor of Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University.

Exile to the Stage examines theatrical costuming in drama texts and performances of 17th-century China when the Manchu rulers regulated hairstyle and dress based on ethnicity and gender. The book argues that theatrical costuming provided a productive way to reconnect bodies, clothes, and identities dissociated by political turbulence. 

The deadline for the next round of publication subventions is September 1, 2019.

2018 Awards

The Board of Directors of the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation is pleased to announce awards made in spring and autumn 2018 for publication subventions and projects.

Awards for publication subventions were made to the following scholarly presses:

Cambridge University Press, for The City of Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and the Early Modern World by Anne Gerritsen

Columbia University Press, for Becoming Guanyin: Artistic Devotion of Buddhist Women in Late Imperial China by Yuhang Li

University of Washington Press, for Jesuits and Matriarchs: Domestic Worship in Early Modern China by Nadine Amsler