News

The Board of Directors of the James P. Geiss & Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation is delighted to announce nine awards made during the spring application cycle:

SUBVENTIONS

Observing the Unseen: Curiosity and Common Knowledge in Early Modern China by Andrew Schonebaum I University of Washington Press, forthcoming December 2025

Observing the Unseen explores perspectives in early-modern China around such questions as, how did people understand invisible or puzzling aspects of their natural world? How were things investigated and envisioned when they lacked visual context, either because they were everywhere (water, wind, life) or nowhere (dragons, the future)? Schonebaum pursues these topics by examining “practical” literature; local and court histories, gazetteers, and newspapers; and “entertainment” literature. The result is an enlightening sweep through early-modern imaginings and beliefs.

Up the River of Time: The Chinese Painting Tradition of Qingming Shanghe by Cheng-hua Wang I Harvard University Asia Center, Publications Program, forthcoming December 2025

This book is the first study in any language that treats the entire cultural constellation of the more than 100 surviving handscroll paintings with the title Qingming shanghe (Up the River during Qingming), which span six hundred years, from the early twelfth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. The book not only examines the production contexts of different versions in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, but also explores the cultural imaginings that the name Qingming shanghe could evoke. Furthermore, it takes a deeper dive into the artistic, political, and sociocultural realms that these paintings helped shape.

PROJECTS

Book Prizes for Ming Studies I Thomas Kelly and Guojun Wang, Society for Ming Studies

An award from the Geiss Hsu Foundation will allow the Society for Ming Studies to continue awarding book prizes in Ming Studies to increase the visibility of pathbreaking work on Ming China within the broader field of Asian Studies and related disciplines. A committee of senior Ming scholars will review nominated publications, and prizes will be awarded at the Society for Ming Studies’ annual meeting-in-conjunction, held at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference.

International Conference: Poetics and Politics of the Human Body in Premodern China I Guojun Wang, McGill University, and Paola Zamperini, Northwestern University

In recent decades, there has been a marked increase in scholarly focus on the human body across various disciplines. In Chinese studies, scholars have examined the human body in contexts including medical, political, military, religious, and legal frameworks. While studies of Chinese literature have traditionally approached themes of death, ghosts, spirits, and resurrected skeletons, recent scholarship has directly investigated the “literary body” in fiction and poetry.  Building on this momentum, this two-day conference at McGill University will explore embodied themes within the context of premodern Chinese literature and culture.

The Journal of the Society for Ming Studies Editorship I Thomas Kelly and Guojun Wang, Society for Ming Studies

An award from the Geiss Hsu Foundation will support efforts to maintain, expand and promote the impact of the Journal of the Society for Ming Studies (Ming Studies) by funding a stiped for the editor of the Journal, who acts as both the academic editor and managing editor. This support will enable the editor to creatively develop the Journal’s digital presence through website design and to explore new publishing opportunities for the currently inactive Ming Studies monograph series as Ming Studies enters its fifth decade.

Manuscript Review Workshop for Relieving the People: Epidemic Management and Confucian Statecraft in Post-Imjin War Korea, 1592-1720 I  Baihui Duan, Lancaster University

Relieving the People examines the environmental, medical, and political aftermath of the Imjin War (1592-1598), which was waged between Japan, Korea, and China. Central to the book is the concept of “relieving the people”, derived from Confucian texts on benevolence and medical manuals. The book details how this principle shaped official and local responses to outbreaks, particularly efforts to aid potential virus carriers such as soldiers, displaced people, the sick poor, and prisoners. Senior scholars in the fields of early modern Chinese medicine, Korean medicine, and environmental history will participate in the manuscript review workshop.

Ming History English Translation Project I Yiming Ha, Pomona College and Hong Kong University

The Ming History English Translation Project (MHETP) is a collaborative project that makes available translations from Chinese to English of portions of the 明史 Mingshi, or the Official History of the Ming Dynasty. Compiled from materials collected over the course of the Ming period (1368-1644) and thereafter, it contains valuable information on Ming government, society, and prominent individuals and is one of the most important sources for the study of Ming history. GHF funding will support website hosting and other technology fees.

Planning Meeting on the Historical Ecology of Villages in Wuyuan County I Ian Miller, St. John’s University; Xin Yu, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Ye Hua, Hong Kong University; Yiyang Jiang, University of Michigan

A group of established and emerging scholars specializing in environmental history, genealogy, geomantic knowledge, and the spatial arrangement of folk religions will meet to plan the next stage of an intensive fieldwork project on fengshui landscapes in Wuyuan County. Research goals include developing a more nuanced understanding of China’s historical ecology, especially of how it changed in the Ming and early Qing; developing new methodologies for historical ecology; and providing historical baselines and models for contemporary efforts to stabilize the climate and protect local and regional ecologies. 

UTMOST: Uncovering Traces of Ming Occupations through Sociological Theory I Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick; Sarah Schneewind, UC San Diego; and Ying Zhang, Leiden University

This multi-year project aims to broaden knowledge of Ming society by examining non-gentry workers. The research will explore the potential of using Chicago-school occupational sociology to study work in the Ming through the analysis of a wide variety of primary sources. Organizers will make studies available to researchers and teachers; introduce the framework to historians both inside and outside the Ming field; test and refine the framework for Ming and for the past more broadly; and offer contributions to sociologists of knowledge and others who wish to go beyond Euro-centrism. The project includes a workshop, conference, and publication.

The Society for Ming Studies’ Geiss Hsu Book Prize Selection Committee announced that it has awarded this year’s prize to to Keith McMahon for his book Saying All that Can be Said: The Art of Describing Sex in Jin Ping Mei.

The committee shared the following statement:

In his magisterial Saying All that Can be Said: The Art of Describing Sex in Jin Ping Mei, senior scholar Keith McMahon brings fresh perspectives to one of Chinese literature’s most read and researched novels. First, drawing on his wide-ranging knowledge of literary and medical works related to sex spanning multiple genres from both earlier and later time periods, McMahon offers a sharper historical contextualization of Jinpingmei than is common and does much to show what is distinctive to the novel. Second, building on decades of research, McMahon insightfully analyzes specific language choices throughout the novel, arguing persuasively that the author of Jinpingmei reveled in linguistic exuberance, both playing with words and expressions, and purposely pushing them in innovative and frequently disruptive directions. Third, and perhaps most crucially, McMahon demonstrates thatJinpingmei’s description of sex varies markedly according to the women’s familial/social status; that is, the novel does not depict sexual activities in a monolithic fashion. Past scholarship has shown that the novel as a whole may be considered an extended and often rambunctiously excoriating commentary on distinction and difference in the late Ming period, ranging from clothing, housing, and furnishings to official rank, social standing, and moral probity. In Saying All that Can be Said, McMahon masterfully demonstrates that the same narrative and linguistic flourishes mark Jinpingmei’s treatment of the most intimate elements of life in Ming China. 

The prize will be awarded at the Society for Ming Studies’ Annual Meeting, which takes place at the Association for Asian Studies’ Conference in Columbus, Ohio, on March 14 from 7 – 9 p.m. in the Morrow Room of the Hyatt Regency Columbus.

GHF is pleased to announce that Three Impeachments: Guo Xiu and the Kangxi Court by R. Kent Guy has just been published by the University of Washington Press. The press received a publication subvention from the Foundation in 2023 to support the publication of both the print and open-access versions of the book.

Application deadline: January 15, 2025

The University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver campus, invites applications for the Geiss Hsu Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ming Studies, starting September 1, 2025. This two-year fellowship will support a scholar in any discipline who studies the Ming Dynasty or a closely-related field, including research that connects the Ming with other time periods and studies of Ming relations with other regions. The fellow will be housed in and supported by the Department of Asian Studies but may be sponsored by a faculty member in any department.

UBC has a long tradition of advanced training in Ming Studies. The China History research cluster hosts a regular work-in-progress series for scholars of Chinese history, which alternates fortnightly with the Ming & More text-reading group that focuses on primary material in Literary Sinitic from the Ming and other periods and regions. The Centre for Chinese Research, part of the Institute for Asian Research, supports interdisciplinary and public-facing scholarship on China.

Fellowship Terms

The fellowship will run from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2027. The fellow will receive a salary of $80,000 (all amounts in Canadian dollars) and extended health and dental coverage. Up to $5,000 in relocation costs may be reimbursed. The fellow will also have access to $5,000 in research funds each year. No teaching is required, but fellows are eligible to apply to teach one or more courses in a relevant department at UBC. The fellow is expected to give at least one public presentation about their research and to organize a workshop, small conference, or similar event in the second year of the fellowship. Up to $20,000 will be provided to cover the cost of this event. The Centre for Chinese Research will provide workspace and research assistant support.

Click here to learn more and apply!

The Board of Directors of the James P. Geiss & Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation is pleased to announce thirteen awards made during the fall application cycle:

SUBVENTIONS

Print & Open Access Publication

Wading Barefoot through a Mountain Stream: The Travel Diaries of Xu Xiake (1587-1641), James Hargett, lead translator and editor  I University of Washington Press, forthcoming July 2025 

Xu Xiake stands as China’s most distinguished traveler and travel writer, whose extensive journeys through Ming-dynasty China offer a unique window into the era’s geography, history, and cultural traditions. This new, fully annotated English translation includes maps and illustrations, allowing readers to follow Xu’s routes. It will be indispensable for scholars of Chinese history, geography, and travel writing and will bring Xu Xiake’s extraordinary journeys to a broader audience. The award from GHF will support print and open-access editions.

Print Publication

The Woven Image: The Making of Mongol Art in the Yuan Empire by Yong Cho I Yale University Press, forthcoming February 2026

The Woven Image: The Making of Mongol Art in the Yuan Empire paints a drastically different picture of the visual and material worlds of the Mongols in their imperial court. It focuses on fabric images to demonstrate that in the eastern half of their world empire known as the Yuan (1271-1368), the Mongol rulers created a completely new system of the arts. This new system subverted the traditional hierarchies of visual and material arts that had thrived in the various dynasties that previously ruled East Asia. 

PROJECTS

Special Journal Issue

CHINOPERL Anniversary Volume: Music, Language, and Drama in Late Imperial China I Jing Shen, Eckerd College

CHINOPERL is an interdisciplinary and international peer-reviewed journal devoted to Chinese oral and performing literature with authors and readers from all over the world. Revolving around the thread of “music, language, and drama,” articles for this anniversary volume of CHINOPERL delve into collections of arias, qin handbooks, and fragments of play texts from the Ming dynasty and related periods. These musical and literary analyses speak to broader late-imperial intellectual trends, contributing to current scholarly conversations about the subjects.

Conferences

China on the Move: Southeast U.S. Scholars and Friends of Late Imperial China (SEUSS-FLIC) Annual Conference I Dan Du, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

The sixth annual SEUSS-FLIC conference, themed “China on the Move,” will take place at UNC-Charlotte from February 28 – March 1, 2025. It will bring together scholars who study historical exchanges and changes brought by the migration of people, goods, and ideas during the Ming dynasty and beyond. Yuhang Li, associate professor of Chinese art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the award-winning GHF-funded book Becoming Guanyin: Artistic Devotion of Buddhist Women in Late Imperial China, will give the keynote address.

Echoes of Great Brightness: The Ming Dynasty and Beyond, An International Conference in Honor of Craig Clunas I J.P. Park with Craig Clunas, University of Oxford

Professor Craig Clunas pioneered the application of social history to the study of the Ming dynasty and Chinese art history. His innovative methodology has positioned the study of the Ming dynasty as one of the most dynamic and engaging areas in both art history and sinology. In recognition of his outstanding scholarship, groundbreaking contributions to the field, and his extensive curatorial and academic career, a group of twenty-three scholars are collaborating to present an equal number of papers at Lincoln College, University of Oxford, in fall 2025.

Worlding the Ming Empire in Global Early Modernity  I Xiaoqiao Ling, Arizona State University

This conference, held at Arizona State University from April 4 – 5, 2025, investigates the role of the Ming Empire (1368-1644) as a cultural and geopolitical imaginary that actively contributed to the formation of a textual world during the early modern era (16th-19th centuries). It aims to understand the Ming as a multilayered and co-constructed civilization, along with its participatory role in global early modernity, without casting the empire as a prelude to capitalism, colonization, and globalization. 

Workshops

Manuscript Review Workshop for “The Uses of Anger in Late Imperial Chinese Literature”  I Zhaokun Xin, University of Manchester

Were people in late imperial China angry? Judging from a long-standing scholarly tradition, they were not, but according to this period’s literary productions, they were frequently so. The project proposes to organize a manuscript review workshop in June 2025 for the first dedicated monograph on the understudied representation of anger in late imperial Chinese literature. The Uses of Anger will not only investigate what give rise to the emotion, but also demonstrate how literary works reconfigure the emotion’s regulation in late imperial China.

“Mapping the Weird” Manuscript Review Workshop  I Rania Huntington, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This March 2025 workshop will bring together scholars to review Mapping the Weird: the Geography of the Seventeenth Century Strange Tale. Focusing on two understudied tale collections from the early 17th century,  the manuscript combines mapping and geographical analysis with close reading to create an “atlas of the imagination” for the Wanli period (1572-1620), exploring how conceptual maps of the divine and demonic intersect with the maps of administrative, natural, and cultural geography.

Plant Humanities in China  I Natasha Heller, University of Virginia

Using multiple approaches from the humanities to think through a plant’s cultural significance is the work of the nascent subfield of Plant Humanities. This spring 2025 workshop will be an interdisciplinary exploration of what it means to take plants as an organizing focus in the study of Chinese culture. Countering the presentist orientation of much of environmental humanities, the workshop will take a long view of plant studies, with scholars whose work spans from the Song dynasty through the Qing.

Grants, Scholarships, & Fellowships

Geiss Hsu Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Ming Studies  I Bruce Rusk, University of British Columbia

This two-year fellowship at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver for a recent PhD recipient in Ming studies will allow the fellow to focus on research with a robust community of Ming and Ming-adjacent scholars, an excellent library collection, and strong connections to East Asia. The fellowship will begin on September 1, 2025, and the fellow will give at least one research talk, present at the Ming & More text-reading group, and organize a one-time workshop, small conference, or talk series at UBC on a topic related to Ming studies.

GHF Support for Friends of the Princeton University Library (FPUL) Grants  I Mireille Djenno, Princeton University Library

Funding from GHF will earmark Friends of the Princeton University Library (FPUL) Grants for Ming scholars. During this three-year pilot program, a selection committee will award up to three Ming-focused grants to scholars who wish to conduct research at the Princeton University Library’s Special Collections, including the in the East Asian Library (Gest Collection). These grants, which have a value of up to $6,000 plus transportation costs, are meant to help defray expenses incurred in traveling to and residing in Princeton during the tenure of the grant. 

RBS-Geiss Hsu Foundation Scholarships  I Michael Suarez, S.J., Rare Book School

Funding from GHF will support scholarships for students of the history of the book in Asia at Rare Book School(RBS). The Geiss Hsu Scholarships will allow young scholars to pursue learning in areas germane to the study of the book in the greater Ming world, studying with the School’s distinguished international faculty in seminar-style classes. The RBS course week includes academic lectures, discussion forums, demonstrations, exhibitions, and additional opportunities to socialize with students and faculty from early morning through late evening.

Open-Access Platform

Exploring Literati Discourses, 14^th– 18^th Centuries I Peter Bol, Harvard University

This project will build an open-access public platform, based on Large Language Models and Private Knowledge Bases, with which scholars can explore the collected writings of 325 individuals from the late Yuan to the early Qing found in the Siku quanshu. The user interface will allow researchers and the interested public to investigate topics in Ming history and culture. They will be able to call up documents and have them punctuated, analyzed, and translated, and they will be able to discover who else spoke to those topics.

Funded by a project award from the Geiss-Hsu Foundation

The Peach Blossom Fan is one of the most important plays in Chinese history. It is also a masterpiece of world literature, acclaimed for the sophisticated ways it uses the tools of the theater to reflect on historical trauma and memory. Wai-yee Li’s annotated translation renders this vital work newly accessible for students of Chinese history, comparative literature, and theater studies. The first complete English translation of the drama and its paratexts, Professor Li’s new edition builds upon, and synthesizes, her groundbreaking research on gender and trauma, the rhetoric of historiography in the Chinese tradition, and literary responses to the Ming-Qing dynastic transition. The play’s central themes—the relationship between art and violence, the perils of political extremism, and the tensions between historical judgment and memory—still speak to our contemporary moment in urgent and profound ways. This roundtable and reception will celebrate the publication of Professor Li’s new translation, reflecting on the enduring significance of The Peach Blossom Fan, the challenges involved in translating this monumental work, and how the play still resonates with readers around the world today. Panelists will share their thoughts on both the drama and the craft of literary translation in general.    

Location: Harvard-Yenching, 2 Divinity Avenue

Roundtable: December 5, 4:00-5:30 pm 

Welcome and introduction: Tom Kelly (Assistant Professor in EALC, Harvard University)

Responses:

Reception: 5:30–7:00 pm (upstairs at 2 Divinity)

GHF is partnering with the National Humanities Center to support residential fellowships for emerging, mid-career, or senior scholars studying China and its world, during and adjacent to the Ming dynasty.

The National Humanities Center welcomes fellowship applications from scholars engaged in the study of China and its world, during and adjacent to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).

The Center is pleased to announce a five-year partnership with the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation to provide residential fellowship support to a scholar engaged in the study of China in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), or of regions and time periods adjacent to the Ming, beginning with the 2025–26 academic year.

Established in 2001, the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation encourages and supports scholarly research and interpretation of imperial China during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), as well as its immediate predecessors and successors, and of contemporaries in geographic areas with which the Ming interacted.

All Fellows are assigned private studies with 24-hour access to the Center’s facilities, enjoy meals prepared by the Center’s dining staff, and receive the support of the Center’s dedicated librarians. They may also take part in scholarly colloquia, reading groups, and social activities with other leading scholars from around the world. More information can be found on our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Emerging scholars, mid-career scholars, and senior scholars may apply for a residential fellowship for the fall semester (September through December), spring semester (January through May), or academic year (September through May). Interested scholars must apply directly to the Center via their online system. This year, the residential fellowship competition opens on July 1 and closes on October 3, 2024. Please check the program page for information regarding the Center’s online application, services, and support.

April 12 & 13, 2024, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

2 DIVINITY AVE
YENCHING COMMON ROOM
CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138

This GHF-funded workshop reconsiders the significance of critical writings about acting, singing, and theatrical performance in China (c.1200–1850). How did artists, intellectuals, and critics reflect on experiences of watching or listening to live performance? How did the act of writing about spectatorship become an artform in and of itself? What might these texts offer for theater and performance studies across the world today? The central question these texts address —namely, “what is the function of Chinese theater?”—has ramifications for students of Chinese history, literature, and thought more broadly.

Click here for more information and the full workshop schedule.