Yale Bulletin and Calendar

January 28, 2000

Volume 28, Number 18

Kang-i Sun Chang

Professor Chang enjoys writing
about Yale for a Chinese audience

Citizens of China can learn about the personalities, traditions and student life of a campus on the other side of the globe thanks to Kang-i Sun Chang, whose latest book, "Reflections on Yale, Gender, and Culture," will be published in China in February.

Chang is a professor of Chinese literature at the University. Her writing in English is serious and scholarly, tackling topics like "Liu Xie's Idea of Canonicity." In China, however, she is best known for lively, personal magazine articles about Yale, American life, feminism, literature and film.

"Reflections" brings together about 40 of these articles, including essays on Handsome Dan; the Women's Table and coeducation; the residential college system; the differences between Yale and Harvard; the Yale-China Association; and the trials and triumphs of being a graduate student.

"Recently, readers in both China and Taiwan have been extremely interested in information and stories about Yale," Chang says. "People are interested in modernization, in general, and especially want to learn about the great universities of the world. Education is the most important thing in Chinese culture. Parents will sacrifice a great deal to provide an education for their children."

Further explaining her choice of topic, Chang exclaims, "Yale has been so good to me!"

Chang was born in Beijing and raised in Taiwan, where she graduated from Tunghai University with a major in English literature. She earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University in classical Chinese literature, with additional studies in Chinese history and comparative literature. She joined the Yale faculty in 1982.

Two versions of "Reflections" will be released in February, one in Taiwan, the other in the People's Republic of China. The Taiwanese edition, from Er-ya Publishing House, is written in the complex form of Chinese, and includes articles about President Richard C. Levin and four Yale professors that do not appear in the mainland edition. The featured faculty members are art historian Jules Prown, historian David Brion Davis, and Russian and Slavic literature scholars Vladimir Alexandrov and Victor Erlich. The second edition, from Shanghai's Wenyi Publisher, is in simplified Chinese and includes more photos of the Yale campus.

The first section of both editions of Chang's book is devoted to Yale: its history and traditions, student life and more. The rest of the volume touches on Yale more tangentially, through personal essays on love and longing, language and poetry, political correctness, family and other matters.

One essay is currently available in English. Titled "A Head for Management: The Stewardship of Yale President Richard C. Levin," it was translated by former Yale student Philip Lisio.

Chang is working on other essays about Yale notables, including Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead, Graduate School Dean Susan Hockfield, University Provost Alison Richard and historian and former Yale President Howard Lamar, as well as faculty members Jaroslav Pelikan, Peter Brooks, Nancy Cott, Michael Holquist and Edwin McClellan.

-- By Gila Reinstein

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