Past Awards

An award from GHF supported the SEUSS-FLIC Annual Conference at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Organized around the theme of “Family, Friendship, and Community,” panel sessions focused on the benefits of familial and community networks and the tensions that sometimes arose between these relationships and obligations to family, society and the state. Mark Halperin, Professor of Chinese at the University of California, Davis, gave a keynote address titled, “The Late Autumn of a Patriarch.”

Graduate students and early-career scholars attended an in-person, workshop-style conference to foster discussion about border-crossing over the longue durée history of late imperial China. The conference was held in two parts, with meetings in New York and Teipei. Scholars across academic ranks in Asia and North America circulated their papers in advance for in-depth discussion, and the resulting research was published as an open-source publication. 

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.

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.

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.

The National Humanities Center received an award from GHF to support a scholar working on a topic involving Early Modern China in each of three academic years. Xiaolin Duan, associate professor of Chinese history in the Department of History at the North Carolina State University, was appointed to the Geiss Hsu Fellowship at the National Humanities Center for the 2023-2024 academic year.

The Association for Asian Studies offered 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 was given to contingent and part-time faculty, students, and independent scholars.

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.