Dr. Liu Xiaoyi has been a full professor at the School of Literature, Shandong University, China, since 2017. She also serves on the Expert Committee of the Shandong Translators Association. Before 2017 she worked, respectively, as a Localization Specialist and Financial Translator for Charles Schwab, a part-time Lecturer for Outreach College, University of Arizona, a Lecturer and Director of Asian Studies Program Minor for Northern Arizona University, and a Research Fellow for Westminster College.
Dr. Liu received her B.A. from the Dept. of Chinese Literature and Language, Shandong University, and both her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Dept. of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona under the supervision of Prof. Chia-lin Pao Tao. She has published 2 English works, 8 Chinese monographs, 20 some CSSCI and English articles, and translated prolifically.
Her 2010 dissertation on the material and cultural history of the Ming Dynasty, based on the Chinese magnum opus Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan, won her, out of a pool of strong, deserving candidates, University of Arizona AHSS Fellowship of $10,000. Her Ph.D. committee was chaired by Prof. Chia-lin Pao Tao and attended by Professors Jiang Wu, Brian McKnight, and Hai Ren. The same research, Clothing, Food, and Travel: Ming Material Culture as Reflected in Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan, later yielded two cognominal monographs, the Chinese version in 2019, and the English one fresh out of the oven in Sept. 2023. Addressing three of the “four major concerns of the people’s livelihoods,” the research frequents economic dimensions and probes the impact that Ming politics had on the ethos and social economy of the period. In addition, it sheds significant light on folk customs, legal and religious practices, and the status of women, among other issues. The Chinese version, by Shanghai Classics Publishing House, received favorable reviews in China and was introduced to Japan. The English version, by Routledge, aims to enrich the current Western scholarship, done primarily by Timothy Brook, Craig Clunas, and Glen Dudbridge, on Ming material culture. Both works are of considerable value to students and scholars of Ming literature and history in general.
Her edited series, Documentary Engravings and Calligraphies of the Celebrated Masters (Bashu Press, 2023), which contains 10 copious volumes, deals with over 200 ancient books on Du Fu, Su Shih, Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming. Her translation, The Lyrical Yu Dafu (American Academic Press, 2021), renders 300 metrical poems by the leading figure of the Creation Society, about half of his extant oeuvre. They are representative of Yu Dafu’s literary merit and highly biographical, covering his birth, family, education, social hangouts, loves, traveling, and marriages. Dr. Liu’s bilingual collection, The Past Lingers (Guangxi Shida Press, 2019), presents her own lyrical writings with English translations and Shakespeare’s sonnets in localization rendering.
Dr. Liu’s other research interests include Qiu Jin studies, Chiang Kai-shek studies, and Jonathan Chaves’s translations of Yüan, Ming, Qing Poetry. She has 3 monographs forthcoming.