The editorial committee of Transnational Asia recently lost its dear friend, Dr. Nanxiu Qian (1947-2022), Professor of Chinese Literature at Rice University. The committee plans to publish a special issue of Transnational Asia commemorating her life and work.
Professor Qian was best known for her pioneering and much-cited work on the enormously influential fifth-century Chinese masterpiece Shishuo xinyu (A New Account of Tales of the World), but she also wrote extensively on a great many other Chinese literary works spanning some two thousand years, from the Lienü zhuan (Biographies of Exemplary Women; first century BCE), to twentieth century fiction in Taiwan, and gender studies in contemporary American scholarship on China. Her last single-authored book was Politics, Poetics, and Gender in Late Qing China: Xue Shaohui and the Era of Reform (Stanford University Press, 2015), a highly regarded political and literary biography of a remarkable woman scholar in late nineteenth and early twentieth century China. Nanxiu was also a dedicated, prize-winning teacher who introduced hundreds of students to the beauty and power of texts written by Chinese women, past and present.
In appreciation of Nanxiu Qian’s wide-ranging scholarship, the editorial committee calls for papers on women and literature in transnational Asia from any historical period. The committee also welcomes diverse genres, ranging from classical prose to online novels and fan fiction. Please direct all inquiries to transnational.asia@rice.edu.