University of Heidelberg

Contact information

Room 207
Institute of Chinese Studies
University of Heidelberg

Akademiestr. 4-8
69117 Heidelberg
GERMANY

Germany

Email:

sun@asia-europe.uni-heidelberg.de

Phone:

+49 (0) 6221 54 7677

Projects

• B12 Rethinking Trends
• HRA8 Chinese Women's Magazines

Curriculum vitae

Education:

04/2005- present    PhD candidate, Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg, Germany. Thesis title: “Body Un/Dis-covered: Luoti, Editorial Agency and Transcultural Production in Chinese Pictorials (1925-1933)", in English. See abstract.

09/2004-01/2005    DSH German language intensive course, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China.

03/2002-11/2002    German language course at Gede German Language Centre, Tianjin, China.

09/2000-07/2003    M.A. in History of Sino-Westen Cultural Exchange (major), History Department, Nankai University, Tianjin, China. Master’s thesis “Baozhi guanggao yu jindai Tianjin shehui (1886-1911)” (Newspaper Advertisements and Modern Tianjin Society (1886-1911), 2003.

09/1996-08/2000    BA in World History (major), History Department, Nankai University, Tianjin, China. BA thesis “Tang Wudai nüzi mianzhuangshu ji huazhuangpin de yuanliao he laiyuan”  (Sources and Materials of Women’s Facial Make-up and Cosmetics in the Tang and Five Dynasties), 2000.

Awards and Scholarships:

2010 Poster Presentation Award for the project “Rethinking Trends” (B 12) at the Second Annual Conference of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context".

2009-2010 Scholarship by the German Research Foundation through the project “Rethinking Trends” at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" (B12).

2009 Travel grant by the Graduate Academy, University of Heidelberg.

2006 DAAD Scholarship.

2001 Hualin Buddist Scholarship, China.

2000 Qiao Wei Scholarship, Nankai University. China.

1999 Second Prize of “The First National Young Historians Award”, among BA students  from History Departments in major Chinese universities.

Work Experience:

04/2011- present  Assistant Professor (part time) at the Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg.

06/2009-present  Project coordinator and supervisor for the database “Chinese Women's Magazine in the Late Qing and Early Republican Period”, part of Heidelberg Research Architecture (HRA 8) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and TransCoop-program funded by SSHRC/Humboldt Foundation.

03/2009-present  Research fellow of “Rethinking Trends: Transcultural Flows in Global Public(s)”, under the auspices of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context"  funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

06/2008-present  Project assistant of "A New Approach to the Popular Press in China: Gender and Cultural Production, 1904-1937" financed by TransCoop-Programm, Humboldt Foundation, in cooperation with York University, Canada, financed by Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

12/2007-05/2008  Project assistant of "Asian Image and Multimedia Databases" and "Archiving Mothers and Fathers of the Nation in Europe and Asia: Developing a Digitized Prototype of Braided Pictorial Histories" financed by the Cluster Asia and Europe.

08/2007-12/2007, 02/2007-06/2007, 01/2006-07/2006    Project assistant of "The Common People and the Artists in the 1930s" led by Professor Christian Henriot, financed by the CCK Foundation and DAAD.

08/2006-11/2006    Project assistant of "A Literary Biography of the Late Qing/Republican Period Woman Poet Lü Bicheng (1883-1943)," led by Professor Grace S. Fong at McGill University, Canada, financed by CCK Foundation.

Teaching Experience:

_{2012 Summer semester: "Wissenschaftspraxis: Erstellung einer Datenbank." (Course code: 0733121UE24).} Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg.

2011 Winter semester: “Naked Bodies in Republican China.” (Course code:0733112UE12). Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg. 

2011 Summer semester: “Reading Linglong (Elegance, 1931-1937): Text, Image and Database.” (Course code: 0733112UE03). Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg.

09/2006-09/2009 Teaching Chinese language course at F+U Academy of Languages, Heidelberg.

07/2001-07/2004: Teaching foreign students Chinese language and culture at New Century Language & Culture Centre, Tianjin, China.

Third Party Funding:

Research fellow of “Rethinking Trends: Transcultural Flows in Global Public(s)”, under the auspices of the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Research Interests:

Visual culture in Republican and Contemporary China (advertisements; calendar posters; photography; artistic education)

Body culture in China in a global context (visual representation of naked bodies; nudism; breasts-(un)binding)

Print culture in China and in Europe (Chinese illustrated magazines in a global context, circulation and dissemination of print materials between China and Europe/North America; journal editor’s cultural practice)

On-going Research Projects:

"In the Name of Beauty and Health: Freikörperkultur (Nudism) as a Trend in China (1920s-1930s)", research project for “Rethinking Trends: Transcultural Flows in Global Public(s)".

Research on the journal Linglong (Linloon Magazine, 1931-1937) for the project "A New Approach to the Popular Press in China: Gender and Cultural Production, 1904-1937".

Joint research on the journal Meiyu (Eyebrow Talk, 1914-1916) with Michel Hockx, SOAS, University of London.

(Co-)Organization of Conferences and Workshops

Panel 188 "Editors as Cultural Producers in Republican China," AAS Annual Meeting 2012, Toronto, Canada, March 17th, 2012.

Conference “Trends on the Move: Transcultural Dimensions of Popular Flows,” KJC, Heidelberg, Oct. 28-30, 2011.

The second workshop of “Gender and Cultural Production: A New Approach to Chinese Women’s Journals in the Early 20th Century,” KJC, Heidelberg, Dec. 17-19, 2009.

Conference “Rethinking Trends,” KJC, Heidelberg, Nov. 27-29, 2008.

Selected publications

Publications:

Sun, Liying. “An Exotic Self? Tracing Cultural Flows of Western Nudes in Pei-yang Pictorial News (1926-1933).” In Transcultural Turbulences, edited by C.B. Brosius and R. Wenzlhuemer, 271-300. Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2011. 

Sun, Liying. “Bo Yingli yu Zhong-Xi wenhua jiaoliu” 柏應理與中西文化交流 (Philippe Couplet and the Cultural Exchange between China and the West). Shijie lishi 世界歷史 (World History) 4 (2000): 36-43.

Work in progress/submitted:

Sun, Liying. “The New Eve Undressed: Nudes in Linglong and American Popular Journals (1920s-1930s).” Under revision, to be submitted to conference edited volume A Space of Their Own: Women and the Periodical Press in China’s Long Twentieth Century, edited by Joan Judge, Barbara Mittler and Michel Hockx.

Sun, Liying. “Popularizing 'luoti' in China? The Trend of Body Culture in Beiyang huabao (1926-1936).” Submitted to the e-journal Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg.

Translations:

Mei Jiale 梅嘉樂 (Barbara Mittler). "Tiaozhan/dingyi xiandaixing: Shanghai zaoqi xinwen mouti zhong de nüxing (1872-1915)" 挑戰/定義現代性：上海早期新聞媒體中的女性(1872-1915) (Defy(N)ing Modernity: Women in Shanghai’s Early News-Media (1872-1915)). Translated by Liying Sun. In Gonghe shidai de Zhongguo funü 共和時代的中國婦女 (Women in China: The Republican Period in Historical Perspective), edited by Yu Chienming, Luo Meijun (Mechthild Leutner), Shi Mingyi (Nicola Spakowski), 255-310. Taipei: Zuo an wenhua, 2007. From English to Chinese.

Mei Jiale 梅嘉樂 (Barbara Mittler). “‘Wei renren suo bixu de youyong xinzhi’? – Shangwu yinshuguan ji qi Xin wenhua cishu” “為人人所必需的有用新知”？——商務印書館及其《新文化辭書》 (Useful New Knowledge for Everyone to Digest? Shanghai Commercial Press and the Xin wenhua cishu 1923). Translated by Liying Sun. In Jindai Zhongguo de baike cishu 近代中國的百科辭書 (Early Modern Chinese Encyclopaedias), edited by Chen Pingyuan, Mi Liena, 193-213. Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2007. From English to Chinese.

Wang Guobin 王國斌.“Zhongguo zhi zhengzhi jingji qu”中國之政治經濟區 (Zones of Chinese Political Ecomomy), translated by Liying Sun and Dan Yu, revised by Liwei Wu. In Zhongguo shehui lishi pinglun 中國社會歷史評論 (Chinese Social History Review) vol.2, edited by Zhang Guogang, 247-254. Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe, 2000. From English to Chinese.

Invited Talks and Conference Presentations:

"‘Sophisticated Entertainment’? Nudes and Lin Zecang's Editorial Practice," paper presented at the panel 188 "Editors as Cultural Producers in Republican China," AAS Annual Meeting 2012, Toronto, Canada, March 17, 2012. See abstract.

“ ‘高尚娛樂’？《玲瓏》中的裸體圖像、視覺再現與編輯決策（1931－1937）‘Sophisticated Entertainment’? Nudes, Visual Representation, and Editorial Agency in Linglong (1931-1937).” Paper presented at “International Conference on Chinese Women and Visual Representation,” Fudan University, Shanghai, Dec.17, 2011.

“Whose Health? How to be Beautiful? Incorporating Freikörperkultur (Nudism) into the Chinese Market (1925-1935).” Paper presented at the conference “Trends on the Move: Transcultural Dimensions of Popular Flows” KJC, Heidelberg, Germany, Oct. 28, 2011. See abstract.

“Nationalism, Athleticism, Phryneism and Transculturality: Changing Notions and Visual Representations of ‘Healthy Bodies’ in Chinese Pictorials (1900s-1940s)”, a visual itinerary presented at “Between Beauty and Health: Visual Itineraries of Changing Bodies in China’s Transcultural Mediascapes (1900s-2000s)”, a roundtable discussion at the Cluster’s third Annual Conference “Frontiers of Knowledge: Health, Environment and the History of Science”, Heidelberg, Oct. 6, 2011. See abstract.

"The New Eve Undressed: Nudes in Linglong and American Popular Journals (1920s-1930s)." Paper presented at the conference "Gender and Transcultural Production: Chinese Women's Journals in their Global Context, 1900-2000", SOAS, London, UK, May 14, 2011.

“Texts, Images, Censorship: The Journal Meiyu (Eyebrow Talk, 1914-1916).” With Michel Hockx at roundtable panel “Gender and Cultural Production: A New Approach to Chinese Women's Journals in the Early 20th Century”, AAS Annual Meeting 2010, Philadelphia, USA, March 27, 2010.

“Women and Scandal in Early Modern Chinese Literature: The Journal Meiyu (Eyebrow Talk, 1914-1916).” With Michel Hockx, Centre of Chinese Studies Seminar, SOAS, London, UK, March 9, 2010. See abstract.

“An Exotic Self? Tracing Transcultural Flows of Western Nudes in Pei-yang Pictorial News (1926-1933).” Paper presented at “Flows of Images and Media: the First Annual Conference of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context’”, Heidelberg, Germany, Oct.9, 2009.

“Popularizing ‘luoti’ in China? The Trend of Body Culture in the Pei-yang Pictorial News (1926-1937).” Talk given at International Popular Culture Conference, organized by PCACA (Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association), Turku, Finland, July 27, 2009.

“Artists and their Nude Models: Discourses on Love and Sex in Chinese Popular Culture (1920s-1940s).” Paper presented at Panel 94 “The Pursuit of Happiness and freedom: Discoursing and Practicing Romantic Love in Modern China”, AAS Annual Meeting 2009, Chicago, USA, March 27, 2009.

“1920 niandai Shanghai de huajia, zhishi fenzi yu luoti shijue wenhua – yi Zhang Jingsheng Luoti yanjiu wei zhongxin” 1920年代上海的畫家, 知識分子與語與裸體視覺文化——以張競生《裸體研究》為中心 (Artists, Intellectuals and Visual Culture of ‘Luoti’ in 1920s Shanghai: with a focus on Zhang Jingsheng’s "Investigation on Naked Bodies"). Paper presented at “The Eighth International Junior Scholars' Conference on Sinology - Modern Press and Culture Studies,” Taipei, Taiwan, March 14, 2009.

“Popularizing 'luoti' in China? The Trend of Body Culture in Beiyang huabao (1926-1936).” Paper presented at the conference “Rethinking Trends,” KJC, Heidelberg, Germany. Nov. 29, 2009.

“Elegant Ways of Seeing? Nude Images and the ‘Female Gaze’ in Linglong (1931-1933).” Paper presented at the first workshop of project “Gender and Cultural Production: A New Approach to Chinese Women’s Journals in the Early 20th Century”, York University, Toronto, Canada, Oct. 29, 2008.