Jing Tsu

{{Short description|Taiwanese-American author and professor (born 1973)}}

{{Infobox academic

| name = Jing Tsu

| native_name = 石靜遠

| native_name_lang = zh

| image = Jing Tsu.png

| caption = Tsu in 2019

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1973}}

| birth_place = Taiwan

| discipline = {{plainlist|

}}

| workplaces = Yale University

| education = University of California, Berkeley (BA, MA)
Harvard University (PhD)

}}

Jing Tsu ({{zh|t=石靜遠|p=Shí Jìngyuǎn}};{{Cite web |title=Tsu, Jing |url=https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2005048834.html |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=Library of Congress}} born 1973) is a Taiwanese American author and professor of East Asian studies. Born in Taiwan, she immigrated to the United States at the age of nine. After receiving a PhD from Harvard University in East Asian languages and civilizations in 2001, she became a professor at Yale University.

At Yale, Tsu was named the chair of the Council on East Asian Studies at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies and Jonathan D. Spence Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Languages and Literatures in 2024. Tsu has published three books; her third, Kingdom of Characters, was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize and a nominee for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

Early life and education

Jing Tsu was born in Taiwan in 1973.{{Cite news |last=Yang |first=Yuan |date=February 10, 2023 |title=Jing Tsu: 'The days of armchair scholarship are over if you're studying China' |url=https://www.ft.com/content/a71c1744-00ef-4cd2-ad6d-d42d28399e31 |access-date=October 24, 2024 |work=Financial Times|url-access=subscription}} In primary school, Tsu was a troublesome student; in a 2023 interview, she recalled her teachers referring to her as "female tiger" due to the lack of effect punishment had on her. At the age of nine, she moved with her mother Sue and her siblings to a small New Mexico town. Her father did not accompany them to the United States. Tsu's mother, who had previously been a teacher, taught her and her siblings Chinese calligraphy and writing, and drove them to Albuquerque for weekly piano lessons.

Tsu graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and a master's degree in rhetoric. In 2001, she earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in Chinese studies.

Career

= Academia =

Tsu was a junior fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows from 2001 to 2004.{{Cite web |title=Jing Tsu |url=https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/people/jing-tsu |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=Harvard Radcliffe Institute}} She also held fellowships at Stanford University and Princeton University,{{Cite web |title=Jing Tsu |url=https://complit.yale.edu/people/jing-tsu |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=Yale University}}{{Cite web |title=Jing Tsu |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2144853/jing-tsu/ |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=Penguin Random House}} and was later awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016.{{Cite web |title=Jing Tsu |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/jing-tsu/ |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}} She became an assistant professor at Yale University in 2006, teaching post-20th century Chinese culture and literature.{{Cite news |date=August 27, 2019 |title=Jing Tsu appointed the Schiff Professor |url=https://news.yale.edu/2019/08/27/jing-tsu-appointed-schiff-professor |access-date=October 24, 2024 |work=YaleNews}} Tsu later became the chair of the Council on East Asian Studies at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, and in 2019, she was named the John M. Schiff Professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures and of Comparative Literature. She was subsequently named the Jonathan D. Spence Professor of Comparative Literature and East Asian Languages and Literatures in 2024.{{Cite news |date=February 13, 2024 |title=Jing Tsu appointed Spence Professor |url=https://news.yale.edu/2024/02/13/jing-tsu-appointed-spence-professor |access-date=October 24, 2024 |work=YaleNews}}

= Authorship =

Tsu published her first book, Failure, Nationalism, and Literature: The Making of Modern Chinese Identity, 1895–1937, in 2005. The book, published by Stanford University Press, received praise; in a 2008 review, James Leibold called it "innovative and provocative".{{Cite news |last=Leibold |first=James |date=December 2008 |title=Tsu, Failure, Nationalism, and Literature: The Making of Modern Chinese Identity, 1895-1937, 2005 |url=https://china.usc.edu/tsu-failure-nationalism-and-literature-making-modern-chinese-identity-1895-1937-2005 |access-date=October 24, 2024 |work=USC US-China Institute}} She followed it with Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora, released in 2010 by Harvard University Press, which was described as "groundbreaking" and "captivating".

In 2022, Tsu released her third book, Kingdom of Characters, with Penguin Press.{{Cite web |title=Kingdom of Characters: A Tale of Language, Obsession, and Genius in Modern China |url=https://www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/books-and-authors/kingdom-of-characters-by-jing-tsu |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction}} The book begins focused upon the period of decline that China suffered at the beginning of the 20th century, and covers the subsequent innovations and developments of the Chinese language made in order to standardize and modernize it. It additionally follows the lives of the individuals who spearheaded said innovations.{{Cite news |last=Dorren |first=Gaston |date=January 22, 2022 |title=Kingdom of Characters by Jing Tsu review – Chinese writing's near death experience |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/22/kingdom-of-characters-by-jing-tsu-review-chinese-writings-near-death-experience |access-date=October 24, 2024 |work=The Guardian}}{{Cite news |last=Mask |first=Deirdre |date=January 18, 2022 |title=They Wanted to Write the History of Modern China. But How? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/books/review/kingdom-of-characters-jing-tsu.html |access-date=October 24, 2024 |work=The New York Times}} The book was very positively received; it was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize{{Cite web |title=Finalist: Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern, by Jing Tsu (Riverhead Books) |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/jing-tsu |access-date=October 24, 2024 |website=The Pulitzer Prizes}} and a nominee for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. It was also named a New York Times Notable Book in 2022. In a review for The New York Times, Deirdre Mask praised Tsu's ability to weave linguistic and historical fact in a colorful manner. Tsu has also published articles in multiple newspapers, including The New York Times and the Financial Times. Her writings usually comprise discussions of modern Chinese geopolitics{{Cite news |last=Tsu |first=Jing |date=October 24, 2016 |title=China's Digital Soft Power Play |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/opinion/chinas-digital-soft-power-play.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027184937/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/opinion/chinas-digital-soft-power-play.html |archive-date=October 27, 2016 |access-date=October 26, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}{{Cite news |last=Tsu |first=Jing |date=May 29, 2020 |title=Why sci-fi could be the secret weapon in China's soft-power arsenal |url=https://www.ft.com/content/85ff1488-82ec-11ea-b6e9-a94cffd1d9bf |access-date=October 26, 2024 |work=Financial Times |archive-date=February 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204111210/https://www.ft.com/content/85ff1488-82ec-11ea-b6e9-a94cffd1d9bf |url-status=dead}} as well as book reviews.{{Cite news |last=Tsu |first=Jing |date=March 23, 2023 |title=Everything, Everywhere, in One Big Book |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/books/review/all-the-knowledge-in-the-world-simon-garfield.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230510173158/http://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/books/review/all-the-knowledge-in-the-world-simon-garfield.html |archive-date=May 10, 2023 |access-date=October 26, 2024 |work=New York Times}}

Bibliography

Failure, Nationalism, and Literature: The Making of Modern Chinese Identity, 1895–1937 (2005)
Sound and Script in Chinese Diaspora (2010)
Kingdom of Characters: A Tale of Language, Obsession, and Genius in Modern China (2022)