Leihua WENG, Ph. D.
May 2015
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese
Pacific Lutheran University
(803) 447-7841
Mailing Address: Admin 220L, Pacific Lutheran Univ., Tacoma, WA, 98447
wengla@plu.edu
EDUCATION
Ph. D. in Comparative Literature, University of South Carolina, December 2010.
M. A. in English Language and Literature, Peking University, 2005.
B. A. in English Language and Literature, Zhejiang University, 2001.
TEACHING & RESEARCH INTEREST
Reception of Plato in China;
Classics in Cultural Politics;
Postmodern Theories;
Chinese Language Pedagogy.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Visiting Assistant Professor of Chinese. Pacific Lutheran University. 2011-present.
Adjunct Instructor. University of South Carolina. 2011.
COURSES REGULARLY TAUGHT
Pacific Lutheran University, Department of Languages and Literatures
Elementary Chinese;
Intermediate Chinese;
Advanced Chinese;
Literature in Classical China;
Contemporary Chinese Poetry.
PUBLICATIONS
Journal Article & Book Chapter:
(2015, Forthcoming). “Re-locating Plato: A Chinese Translation and Interpretation of Plato’s
Symposium.” Intertexts: a Journal of Comparative and Theoretical Reflection.
(2015, in press). “Time, History and Nation in Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution.” Symploké.
(2015, in press). “The Straussian Reading of Plato and Nationalism in China.” The Comparatist.
(2015). “Revolution and Event: Mao in Alain Badiou’s Plato’s Republic.” Comparative
Literature Studies, 52.1 (2015): 47-64.
(2013, Forthcoming). “‘Transcription of My Immediate Life’: Negotiating the Personal and the
Collective in the Memoirs of Simone de Beauvoir and Ding Ling.” Book Chapter in NEH
Book project: “Transnational Modernism and Urban Conflict in the Interwar Era.” Coauthor with Dr. Li Guo. Invited Submission.
(2013). “Plato in Post-structuralism.” Journal of Tsinghua University. 6 (2013): 131-7.
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(2010). “Theaetetus and Indeterminacy.” The McNeese Review, 48 (2010): 25-35.
Book Review:
(2015, in press). “ ‘Native Informant’ and the Deconstructivist Stand.” Review of Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak’s A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the
Vanishing Present. Forthcoming in Kiao-Iology 《侨易》, August, 2015.
Translation:
(2015, in press). “Cicero Reads Derrida Reading Cicero: A Politics and a Friendship to Come”
by Paul Allen Miller. Forthcoming in Journal of Tsinghua University.
HONORS & AWARDS
2015. Stipend for the Summer University on “Globalized Classics.” Humboldt University of
Berlin. (€1,300).
2015. Kelmer Roe Research Award. Pacific Lutheran University. ($5,600, shared with student
Danielle Villanueva).
2015. Teddy Amoloza Conference Award. ASIANetwork. ($500).
2014. Wang Center Research Grant. Pacific Lutheran University. ($3,300).
2014. Innovative Teaching Grant (shared). Pacific Lutheran University.
2011. NEH Summer Stipend for Seminar: Shanghai and Berlin. ($4,500).
2010. Rhude M. Patterson Fellowship. University of South Carolina. ($2,500).
2010. Routledge Prize. Society for Comparative Literature and the Arts. ($500).
2009. Carroll T. And Edward B. Cantey, Jr. Bicentennial Fellowship in Liberal Arts. University
of South Carolina. ($2,500).
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
Summer Seminar on China. Penn State University. 2014.
ACTFL Workshop on Oral Proficiency Interview. Pacific Lutheran University. 2012.
Collegium Phaenomenologicum. Italy. 2012.
“Seminars on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language.” University of South Carolina. 2011.
“2010 Advanced Study and Training Program on Pedagogy and Chinese Teaching Materials.”
Office of Chinese Language Council International. Beijing. 2010.
CONFERENCE PAPERS
“The Restraint of Desires and the Self-Cultivation in Daxue yanyi.” Annual Conference of
American Comparative Literature Association. Seattle, 2015.
“From Traumatic Experience to Narration: The Trajectory from Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution to Life
of Pi. Annual Conference of Asian Cinema Studies Society. Macau, 2015.
“A Straussian Translation of Plato’s Symposium in its Chinese Context.” 16th Annual Conference
of Comparative Literature “Translating the Ancient Classics in China and the West: 1950
and Beyond.” University of South Carolina. 2014.
“Plato and Nationalism.” Annual Conference of American Philological Association. 2014.
“Experience of Individual Time as Repudiation of the Subject of History in Lust, Caution.”
Annual Conference of American Association of Chinese Studies. 2013.
“From Cultural Christians to Straussian Platonists: Approach to Value Crisis in Contemporary
China.” Collegium Phaenomenologicum Participants Conference of 2012. Italy. 2012.
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“Leo Strauss, Carl Schmitt, and Mao: Chinese Platonists’ Reading of Modern History in China.”
Colloquium of Department of Languages and Literatures, Pacific Lutheran University. 2012.
“Body Against Politics: Historical Nihilism in Lust, Caution.” 51th Meeting of the Southeast
Conference/Association for Asian Studies. 2012.
“The Philosopher-King/Confucian Sage: Chinese Platonists’ Counter- reaction to Globalization.”
Freeman Foundation Lecture Series “The Chinese 21st Century?” Pacific Lutheran
University. 2011.
“Narration of History and Issue of Modernity in Chinese Platonists.” 50th Meeting of the
Southeast Conference/Association for Asian Studies. 2011.
“Post-Structualist and Daoist Approaches to the Indeterminacy of Meaning.” The 3rd Modernism
and the Orient Conference. 2010.
“Body in Confucian Self-Cultivation and in the Socrates’ Care of the Self.” 12th Annual
Comparative Literature Conference of University of South Carolina. 2010.
“The Issue of Modernity in 1980s’ Translation in China.” Southern Comparative Literature
Association Conference. 2009.
“The Quest for a New Ethical Self: The Platonic Reception in Contemporary China.” American
Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference. 2009.
“Novel and the Concept of Nation: A Study on the Chinese Novels in 1980s in the Perspective of
Anderson and Culler.” Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies. 2009.
“Another Apology for Socrates: an Inter-textual Interpretation of Xenophon’s Symposium.” 10th
Annual Comparative Literature Conference of University of South Carolina. 2008.
“Feminine Narrative and Narration of History and Nation in Hou Hsiao-sien’s A City of Sadness
and Good Men, Good Women.” Women’s Studies Program Annual Conference of
University of South Carolina. 2006.
INVITED TALKS
“Zhuangzi’s Butterfly Dream and Plato’s Cave Myth.” Guest Lecture at Prof. Sergia Hay’s
PHIL 121: The Examined Life. Philosophy Department, Pacific Lutheran University. 2012.
“Heaven and Human Beings: Introduction to Ancient Chinese Philosophy,” guest lecture at Prof.
Sergia Hay’s PHIL 121: The Examined Life, Philosophy Department, Pacific Lutheran
University. 2011.
“May Fourth and Its Legacy,” guest lecture at Prof. Adam Cathcart’s HIST 339: Revolutionary
China, History Department, Pacific Lutheran University. 2011.
“Chinese Poetry after 1989,” guest lecture at CHIIN 488, Pacific Lutheran University. 2011.
“Lu Xun’s Diary of Madman and its Thematic Structure,” guest lecture at Prof. Jie Guo’s CPLT
270: World Literature, Program of Comparative Literature, Department of Languages,
Literatures and Cultures, University of South Carolina. 2009.
“The Ambiguity of Meaning in The Book of Poetry,” guest lecture at Prof. Peter Whelan’s
ENGL 314H: World Literature, English Department, Francis Marion University. 2007.
ACTIVITIES & SERVICES
Guest Editor. 3rd Issue of The Journal of Sino-American Comparative Literature,
Forthcoming, Fall 2016.
Organizer, Chair and Presenter. The seminar “Body and Sexuality: East and West, Ancient
and Modern” at American Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference. 2015.
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Arranged a group of Visiting Scholars from China to do study and to assist teaching at the
Pacific Lutheran University. 2014.
Organizer. The Panel “Greek Text, Thought and Event in China,” at 16th Annual Conference of
Comparative Literature “Translating the Ancient Classics in China and the West: 1950 and
Beyond.” University of South Carolina. 2014.
Representative of Chinese Language in the Hong International Residential Hall Committee,
Pacific Lutheran University. September 2012 to present.
Organized a conversation on Chinese modern history and culture between Sidney Rittenberg and
students from China. 2012.
Advisor of Chinese Calligraphy Club at Pacific Lutheran University. 2011-2012.
Panel Chair of “Linguistics and Language Pedagogy” of the Southeast Conference/Association
for Asian Studies. 2012.
Invited Panelist of Students’ Discussion at the Pacific Lutheran University, “The Global Status
of Women: a Panel Discussion of Women Worldwide. 2011.
Organizer. The Panel “Narrative and Media in Transculturation” at the 2011 International
Conference on Narrative. 2011.
Co-director. Documentary film, More Than Tourists: A Cultural Journey of Taichi, University
of South Carolina and University of Texas at Austin, 2010.
Secretary of Chinese Literature Club at University of South Carolina. 2007 and 2009.
LANGUAGES
Native Chinese;
Near-native fluency in English;
Reading knowledge in Classical Greek;
Some reading knowledge in French and Latin.
REFERENCES
Dr. Paul Allen Miller, Carolina Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Chair of
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of South Carolina.
pamiller@sc.edu.
Dr. Eric Nelson, Associate Professor of Classics, Former Chair of Department of Languages and
Cultures, Pacific Lutheran University. nelsoned@plu.edu.
Dr. Paul Manfredi, Associate Professor of Chinese, Chair of Chinese Studies Program, Pacific
Lutheran University. manfrepr@plu.edu.