• Research Interests

  • Religion and literature in China
  • Theories and practices of religious translation 
  • Biblical reception in Chinese contexts 
  • Global Yijing (Book of Changes) studies

• Recent Research ProjectS

  1. “Protestant Interpretations of the Yijing: A Comparative Study of Thomas McClatchie and James Legge in Late Qing China,” General Research Fund, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, 2020–2022. (Principal Investigator) (HK$403,000)
  2. “Transforming Morality and Society: Chinese Jesuit Fiction and Drama in the Republican Era (1912–1937),” General Research Fund, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, 2015–2018. (Principal Investigator) (HK$428,356)
  3. “Rediscovering the Lost Heritage: The Religious Poetics of the ‘New Age Novels’ (1895) and Its Far-reaching Impact on Chinese Literary Modernity,” General Research Fund, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, 2013–2016. (Principal Investigator) (HK$332,371)
  4. “Chinese Christian Novels in Late Qing China (1807–1911): An Interdisciplinary Study of Religion and Literature,” General Research Fund, Research Grants Council, Hong Kong, 2010–2013. (Principal Investigator) (HK$570,481) 

• Representative Publications

  1. An Annotated Anthology of the Yijing Commentaries by the Early Qing Jesuit Joachim Bouvet (in Chinese: 清初耶穌會士白晉《易經》殘稿選注) (Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2020). (refereed) (384 pages)
  2. Literary Representations of Christianity in Late Qing and Republican China (Leiden: Brill, 2019). (Studies in Religion and the Arts Book Series; Volume 14) (refereed) (205 pages)
  3. Gusheng Ruose Juben: An Annotated Anthology of Chinese Catholic Biblical Plays of the Republican Period (in Chinese: 古聖若瑟劇本――民國天主教聖經戲劇選輯) (Taipei: Rev. Dr. Lien-hwa Chow Memorial Foundation, 2019). (refereed) (736 pages)
  4. Attuning the Gospel: Chinese Christian Novels of the Late Qing Period (in Chinese: 福音演義――晚清漢語基督教小說的書寫) (Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2017). (National Taiwan University (NTU) & Harvard-Yenching Institute (HYI) Academic Book Series; Volume 2) (refereed) (316 pages)
  5. Negotiating Religious Gaps: The Enterprise of Translating Christian Tracts by Protestant Missionaries in Nineteenth-century China (Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, 2012). (refereed) (382 pages)
  6. The Afterlife of a Classic: A Critical Study of the Late-Qing Chinese Translations of The Pilgrim’s Progress (in Chinese: 經典的轉生――晚清《天路歷程》漢譯研究) (Hong Kong: Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, 2012). (refereed) (327 pages)
  7. “Wellspring of Inspiration: The Mandarin Union Version and Modern Chinese Poetry in the Early Twentieth Century,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), Vol. 30, Issue 1 (January 2020), pp. 163–177.  
  8. “Performing Religion: Chinese Catholic Biblical Drama in the Republican Era,” Journal of Chinese Religions (London and New York: Routledge), Vol. 45, no. 1 (May 2017), pp. 39–62. 
  9. “Robert Morrison’s Chinese Literature and Translated Modernity,” in A New Literary History of Modern China, edited by David Der-wei Wang (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2017), pp. 56–62.
  10. “Pilgrimage to Heaven: Timothy Richard’s Christian Interpretation of The Journey to the West,” in David Jasper, Youzhuang Geng and Wang Hai, eds. A Poetics of Translation: Between Chinese and English Literature (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2016), pp. 59–72.

   

• OTHER PROJECTS, ACHIEVEMENTS, AND/OR AWARDS

  1. Research Excellence Award, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2020) (2011) 
  2. The Faculty of Arts Outstanding Teaching Award, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2020) (2017) (2015) (2014) (2013) (2011) (2010)
  3. Harvard-Yenching Visiting Fellowship, Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University (2015–16)

>> Click here to Prof Lai's CV.