Xiaofei Tian

Xiaofei Tian has transformed understanding of Chinese literature through innovative scholarship spanning medieval to modern periods. After earning her BA from Peking University in 1989 and PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard in 1998, she joined Harvard's faculty in 2000 where she now serves as Professor of Chinese Literature. Her groundbreaking research combines manuscript studies, cultural history, and comparative literature, demonstrated in influential works like "Tao Yuanming and Manuscript Culture" and "Beacon Fire and Shooting Star". As editor of the journal Early Medieval China and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature, she has shaped the field's development while expanding its scope. Her achievements include the Patrick D. Hanan Prize for translation (2016), Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship (2012), and ACLS Donald J. Munro Fellowship (2019-2020). Through pioneering work on topics ranging from medieval court culture to modern trauma literature, including the Cultural Revolution, she continues to bridge traditional and contemporary Chinese literary studies while mentoring the next generation of scholars. Her current research explores empire, self-writing, and cultural transformation in early medieval China.