Weihong Du

Assistant Professor of Asian Studies

Contact 309-341-7846 wdu@knox.edu

General Interests
"Currently I am researching cross-cultural interactions between China and the West during the 1930s. I am focused primarily on how these presentations of culture were made to the Western other and how the specifics of those presentations affect authenticity and understanding between China and its interlocutors. The most interesting thing about this topic is how it provides such a penetrating tool for defining the past and how it sheds light even on contemporary cross-cultural interactions."

Years at Knox: 2009 to present

Education
Ph.D., Chinese, 2009, University of Minnesota.
M.A., Chinese, 2005, University of Minnesota.
M.A., Chinese Language and Literature, 1995, Nanjing University.
B.A., Chinese Language and Literature, 1992, Nanjing University.

Teaching Interests
Chinese literature, culture, film, and language.

Selected Professional Accomplishments

Honors/Grants
Research Grant, University of Minnesota Graduate School Thesis, 2007.
Shohara Fellowship Award, Chinese Program in East Asian Languages, Literature and Linguistics, University of Minnesota, 1999.

Presentations
"Homemade Faces in a Foreign Mirror: Mimetic Authenticity in Sino-Western Cultural Interchange during the 1930." East Asia Seminar Series, College of Liberal Arts of University of Minnesota, 2008.

"Reversed Oriental Gaze: Redefining Chinese Arts and Culture." New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS), State University of New York, New Paltz, 2005.

"Illness as Female Living Conditions in the Early Stories of Lu Yin and Ding Ling." Fourteenth Annual Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, Columbia University, 2005.

Campus & Community Involvement
Member, Association of Asian Studies, (AAS).
Member, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, (MCLC).
Member, Asian History and Studies, (H-ASIA).