USC.edu

Mengxiao Wang

Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Mengxiao Wang
Email mwang608@usc.edu

Education

  • B.A. Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University
  • M.A. Classical Chinese Literature and Philology, Beijing Normal University
  • Ph.D. East Asian Languages and Literatures, Yale University
    • Sheng Yen Postdoctoral Fellow in Chinese Buddhism, University of California, Berkeley, 2019 – 2021

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    I specialize in traditional Chinese literature and culture, with a primary focus on the interplay between literary production and religious practice. My current book project, Buddhism and Theatricality in Early Modern China, investigates how the monastics and the laity reshaped theater as a form of religious endeavor and facilitated new types of dramatic theories and performances during the 16th and 17th centuries. In addition to this book project, I have also published articles on the “Three Teachings” in the late Ming, Pure Land Buddhism, ritual and theater, print culture, and Daoist art.

    Research Keywords

    late imperial China, Chinese literature, religion, theater, Buddhism, ritual, gender, performance

    • (Fall 2021) EALC 145. Introduction to Chinese Culture, Art and Literature, MW, 12:30pm – 01:50pm
    • (Fall 2021) EALC 380. Cultural Topics in East Asian Literature, MW, 03:30pm – 04:50pm
    • (Spring 2022) EALC 400. Classical Chinese I, MW, 02:00pm – 03:20pm
    • (Spring 2022) EALC 452. Chinese Fiction, MW, 12:00pm – 01:20pm
    • (Spring 2023) EALC 400. Classical Chinese I, MW, 02:00pm – 03:20pm
    • (Spring 2023) EALC 551. Seminar: China, M, 05:00pm – 07:50pm
    • (Fall 2025) EALC 145. Introduction to Chinese Culture, Art and Literature, MW, 02:00pm – 03:20pm
    • (Fall 2025) EALC 452. Chinese Fiction, MW, 03:30pm – 04:50pm
    • (Spring 2026) EALC 506. Selections from Classical Chinese Literature, M, 03:30pm – 06:20pm, GFS213

  • Journal Article

    • Wang, M. (2025). Chan Practice through Literary Commentary: A Buddhist Rereading of a Romantic Drama in Seventeenth-Century China. Religion & Literature Journal. (2&3)
    • Wang, M. (2024). Between Ritual and Theater: The Buddhist Play Guiyuanjing on the Page and Stage”. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. (1&2), pp. 111-42.
    • Wang, M. (2024). Gendered Dharma Sermons: The Parodies of Buddhist Rituals in a Qing Play about Shrew Taming. Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gender in China. (2), pp. 251-88.
    • Wang, M. (2023). The Production and Circulation of Tu Long’s Encyclopedia Hongbao 屠隆雜著《鴻苞》成書與傳播考. Historical Documents 文獻. (1), pp. 121-141.
    • Wang, M. (2022). The Late Ming Literatus Tu Long’s Religious Practice and the Transformation of his Writing 晚明文人屠隆的佛道修行與写作轉型. Literary Heritage 文學遺產. (2), pp. 132-144.
    • Wang, M. (2021). Dual Canonization: A Study of the Identity and Cult of Li Zhong, the Protagonist of a Chinese Scroll Held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Journal of Song-Yuan Studies. Vol. 50, pp. 429-441.
    • Wang, M. (2020). Building a Pure Land Lineage: A Study of Zhida’s Play Mirror of the Return to the Origin and a Translation of its Three Paratexts. Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies. Vol. 33, pp. 1-47.
    • Wang, M. (2020). Eminent Monk and Popular Literature: Buddhist Master Zhuhong as a Drama Critic, a Protagonist in Vernacular Narratives, and a Lyricist 高僧與俗文學——作為劇評家、戲中人與「曲作者」的雲棲袾宏. Chung-Hwa Buddhist Studies 中華佛學研究. Vol. 21, pp. 1-35.
    • Wang, M. (2020). Reconciling the Three Teachings: Tu Long’s (1543-1605) Self-Cultivation and Playwriting. Late Imperial China. (1), pp. 1-37.
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