Pauline Yu

{{Infobox person

| native_name = 余寶琳

| citizenship = American

| education = Harvard University (BA), Stanford University (MA, PhD)

| occupation = Sinologist

}}

Pauline Yu ({{zh|first=t|t=余寶琳|s=余宝琳|p=Yú Bǎolín}};{{in lang|zh}} Wang Wan-Hsiang (王萬象). "[http://www.ntpu.edu.tw/dcll/paper/004/03.pdf Pauline Yu’s Reading of Imagery in the Chinese and Western Poetic Tradition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525195408/http://www.ntpu.edu.tw/dcll/paper/004/03.pdf |date=2014-05-25 }}" (余寶琳的中西詩學意象論; [https://web.archive.org/web/20140525195408/http://www.ntpu.edu.tw/dcll/paper/004/03.pdf Archive]). Journal of Chinese Language and Literature of National Taipei University (臺北大學中文學報), National Taipei University. 第 4 期. March 2008. p. 53-102. Cited: p. 53 (Chinese abstract) born 1949) is an American scholar of Chinese literature and culture noted for her contributions to the study of classical Chinese poetry and comparative literature. She is also known for her research and advocacy on issues in the humanities. Yu serves on the Henry Luce Foundation's board of directors.{{Cite web |title=President Biden Awards National Humanities Medal to Luce Board Member Pauline Yu |url=https://hluce.org/about/news/president-biden-awards-national-humanities-medal-to-luce-board-member-pauline-yu/ |access-date=2024-11-09 |website=Henry Luce Foundation |language=en}}

Early life and education

Yu was born in 1949 in Rochester, New York, to two recent immigrants from China, Paul N. Yu, a cardiologist who was later elected president of the American Heart Association; and I Ling Tang, a pediatrician. Her account of her father's funeral in Taiwan was published in The American Scholar in 2013.{{Cite web|url=https://theamericanscholar.org/issues/autumn-2013/|title=Autumn 2013|website=The American Scholar}}

Yu attended public schools in the Rochester suburb of Brighton and was inducted into the first class of the Brighton High School Hall of Fame in 2006.{{Cite web |url=http://www.brightonalumni.org/bsaa-announces-new-hall-of-famers/ |title=BSAA/BHS Alumni Hall of Fame {{!}} BSAA |access-date=2013-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150810083521/http://www.brightonalumni.org/bsaa-announces-new-hall-of-famers/ |archive-date=2015-08-10 |url-status=dead }}

Yu received her B.A. in modern French and German history and literature from Radcliffe College. While in college she studied for a year at the Free University of Berlin. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in comparative literature from Stanford University.

Career

Yu taught at the University of Minnesota from 1976 to 1985, at Columbia University from 1985 to 1989, and was founding chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of California, Irvine from 1989 to 1994.{{cite news |last1=Davidson |first1=Jean |title=UCI Chooses Head of East Asian Department: Author and Top Chinese-Poetry Scholar Pauline Yu Lured From Columbia University |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-16-me-343-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=May 16, 1989}} Yu was dean of humanities in the College of Letters and Science at the University of California, Los Angeles and professor of East Asian languages and cultures from 1994 to 2003.{{cite news |title=Education: Poetry Scholar Appointed Humanities Dean at UCLA |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-02-10-we-21417-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 10, 1994}}

She is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1983) and the American Council of Learned Societies (1983). Her article "'Your Alabaster in This Porcelain': Judith Gautier’s Le livre de jade" received the William Riley Parker Prize for best PMLA article of 2007.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mla.org/Resources/Career/MLA-Grants-and-Awards/Winners-of-MLA-Prizes/Annual-Prize-and-Award-Winners/William-Riley-Parker-Prize-Winners|title=William Riley Parker Prize Winners|website=Modern Language Association}}

A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Yu is on the Academy's national Commission on the Humanities & Social Sciences.[http://www.humanitiescommission.org/AboutCommission/CommissionMembers.aspx Commission Members – Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences] She is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Pauline+Yu&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-24|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} and Committee of 100, the Board of Directors of both the Teagle Foundation and the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and the Kluge Scholars' Council of the Library of Congress.{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/programs/john-w-kluge-center/about-this-program//scholars/yu.html|title=About This Program | The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress | Programs | Library of Congress|website=Library of Congress}} Yu was a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Humanities Center from 2000 to 2019.

From 2003 to 2019, Yu served as president of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), an organization created to represent and support scholars and scholarship in the humanities.{{Cite web|url=https://www.acls.org/about/Default.aspx?id=436|title=ACLS American Council of Learned Societies | www.acls.org - Our Work|website=www.acls.org}}[https://publications.acls.org/AR/ACLS-Annual-Report-2019.pdf 2019 ACLS Annual Report]

She was awarded a National Humanities Medal in 2022.National Endowment for the Humanities. Pauline Yu. National Humanities Medal. 2022. https://essentials.neh.gov/award/pauline-yu Accessed 16 Nov 2024.

Personal life

Yu was married to Theodore D. Huters from 1975 to 2000. They have three children and three grandchildren.

Select publications

Ways with Words: Writing about Reading Texts from Early China, co-ed. Berkeley and L.A.: University of California Press, 2000
Culture and State in Chinese History: Conventions, Accommodations, and Critiques, co-ed. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997
Voices of the Song Lyric in China, sole ed. and contributor. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
The Reading of Imagery in the Chinese Poetic Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
The Poetry of Wang Wei: New Translations and Commentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.Read online at https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/projects/the-poetry-of-wang-wei

References

External links

{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050103080614/http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/Yu.htm |date=January 3, 2005 |title="Pauline Yu" }} ([http://web.archive.org/web/20050103080614/http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/Yu.htm Archive]). UCLA Center for East Asian Studies, UCLA International Institute/International Studies Overseas Programs (ISOP), University of California, Los Angeles.

Category:1949 births

Category:American academics of Chinese descent

Category:American women academics

Category:American writers of Chinese descent

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Category:Free University of Berlin alumni

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Members of the Committee of 100

Category:People from Rochester, New York

Category:Stanford University alumni