2022
A Conference on Border-Crossing in the Ming
Academia Sinica and Mount Holyoke College, May and August 2023
Principal Investigator(s): Ling-Wei Kung, Academia Sinica, and Lan Wu, Mount Holyoke CollegeGraduate students and early-career scholars will attend an in-person, workshop-style conference to foster discussion about border-crossing over the longue durée history of late imperial China. Scholars across academic ranks in Asia and North America will circulate their papers in advance for in-depth discussion, and research will be shared as an open-source publication. The conference will be held in two parts, with meetings in New York and Teipei.
2022
Bandits in Print: The Water Margin and the Transformations of Vernacular Fiction
By Scott Gregory
Cornell East Asia Series, an imprint of Cornell University Press, forthcoming April 2023

Bandits in Print reexamines Ming vernacular literature and print culture through the influential Ming novelShuihu zhuan (The Water Margin). Moving away from ultimately unanswerable questions about authorship and urtext, Scott Gregory focuses on the editor-publishers who decided the shape the novel would take as they crafted their print editions. By placing each edition firmly within its own socio-historical context, Bandits in Print shows that in the Ming dynasty, a novel like The Water Margin was not so much as a single literary work but a complex family of print editions, each with its own meaning.
2022
Chinese Autobiographical Writing: An Anthology of Personal Accounts
Translated by Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Cong Ellen Zhang, and Ping Yao
University of Washington Press, forthcoming March 2023

Chinese Autobiographical Writing contains full translations of works by fifty individuals that illuminate the history and conventions of writing about oneself in the Chinese tradition. From poetry, letters, and diaries to statements in legal proceedings, these engaging and readable works provide vivid details of life as it was lived from the pre-imperial period to the nineteenth century. With an introduction and list of additional readings for each selection, this volume is ideal for undergraduate courses on Chinese history, literature, religion, and women and family.
2022
Flower on a River: The Art of Chinese Flower and Bird Painting, 1368-1911 – Masterworks from Tianjin Museum and Changzhou Museum
China Institute in America, spring 2023
Principal Investigator(s): Willow Weilan Hai, China Institute Gallery
This exhibition will feature 100 of the most important masterworks in the genre of flower and bird painting spanning 500 years of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It will examine how coded imagery in these stunning depictions of flora and fauna was used to transmit meanings—central to Chinese art and culture—that link the natural world and the human experience. A fully-illustrated bilingual exhibition catalogue, an international scholarly symposium on the art and culture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and public and education programs will explore associated themes. GHF funds support the New York presentation of the exhibition.
2022
Geiss-Hsu Annual Conference Travel Grant (Travel)
Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, March 16-19, 2023
Principal Investigator(s): Hilary V. Finchum-Sung, Association for Asian StudiesThe Association for Asian Studies will offer grants of up to $2,000 for scholars of the Ming dynasty and Ming-adjacent peoples to attend, either virtually or in person, the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference in Boston. Preference will be given to contingent and part-time faculty, students, and independent scholars.
2022
How is China Governed? From Ming Statecraft to Xi’s New Era
University of British Columbia, Centre for Chinese Research, September 9-11, 2022
Principal Investigator(s): Timothy Cheek, University of British Columbia
This interdisciplinary, workshop-style conference aims to develop a deeper understanding of, and foster discussion and debate about, Ming history, global experience with empire in the early modern period, and the role of historical precedents in Chinese governance today. Papers will be presented on four panels, each built around the pre-circulation of papers and designated commentators. The conference will bring together scholars from around the world, and the best papers will be published as an edited volume or one or more special issues of recognized scholarly journals. GHF funds support travel, per diem, and accommodation for graduate student and early-career academics, and cover the costs of the keynote session.
2022
New Voices in Ming Studies: Presentations of New Research on Ming China (Travel)
Society for Ming Studies, March 2023
Principal Investigator(s): Thomas Kelly, Society for Ming StudiesNine graduate students will give ten-minute presentations on their research at the Society for Ming Studies’ Annual Meeting, highlighting their primary arguments, key sources, and the ways in which their research connects to the Ming. The initiative aims to encourage Ming research and engagement at the junior scholar level, and bring to the fore questions, research materials, and methodologies that productively challenge and enlarge the study of Ming China.
2022
Nonproducing Skills: Failure, Maintenance, Recycling, and Transport in Early Modern East Asia
Michigan State University, June 2-3, 2023
Principal Investigator(s): Yulian Wu, Michigan State UniversityThis workshop examines skills that have been overlooked in the literature of craftsmanship and artisanal knowledge. “Nonproducing” skills underscore labor and technical strategies devised to manage the unpredictable human-material interaction that arose in the course of production. The organizers aim to bring the study of skills into conversation with emerging concepts, to contextualize Ming material culture and technology in the transnational and connected history of East Asia and beyond, and to publish select papers.