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About Me

I was born and raised in China and hold a BA and MA from Peking University. I have, since my Ph.D work at the University of Chicago, endeavored to include gender within the deliberations of literature and theatrical history of early modern China, emphasizing the agency of actresses and women poets. I have published essays on topics such as late Ming soundscape, vocal pedagogy, drama publishing, women’s poetry, and the visual representation of theater women in various top-tier journals, including T’oungpao, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, CLEAR: Chinese Literature, Essays, and Reviews, Late Imperial China, and Ars Orientalis (forthcoming 2025). My monograph, *The Courtesan’s Memory, Voice, and Late Ming Drama* (also forthcoming 2025), explores brothels as a productive literary space and examines the courtesan’s performing arts as a crucial influence on late Ming dramatic literature.

My research interests have expanded to include the extensive sound and photographic archives created in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I am a co-editor and contributor of a peer-reviewed special issue entitled “Chinese Opera, Xiqu, and New Media, 1890s–1950s” (2017). As part of my research project on gendered aesthetics shaped by modern technologies, I am exploring innovative ways to interpret ethnographic wax cylinder recordings of female performances made in early twentieth-century China.

I am completing my second monograph, which unravels the hidden connections between the first wave of women’s poetry in China and the East Asian War of 1592–1598, known as the Imjin 壬辰 War and Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s 豐臣秀吉 (1537–1598) invasions of Korea. As a side project in addition to the English monograph, one prominent figure’s oeuvre is receiving a comprehensive philological analysis. I am finalizing an annotated anthology of her poetry and prose, arranged in chronological order, marking it as the first publication of its kind.

My research-related activities have been funded by the Kyujanggak Institute at Seoul National University (2021), Fulbright American Scholar program (2020), ACLS/Henry-Luce Foundation (2018), and Center for Chinese Studies at U.C. Berkeley (2016), among others.

As the disciple of a late Peking opera master (Liu Zengfu) and an award-winning singer, I have delivered many lecture-demonstrations of Peking opera and kunqu at American colleges and universities since 2010. The YouTube link to my recorded performances: https://www.youtube.com/user/shuidiyu

Recent Publications

The Courtesan’s Voice, Memory, and Late Ming Drama (University of Michigan Press, 2025.)

“The Courtesan’s “Role Portrait”: Brothel Performances and the Qiu Ying Models in Late Ming Suzhou” in Ars Orientalis (55), Sept. 2025.

“Gendering Tang and Chosŏn Poetics in Late Ming China” in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (85:1), June 2025.

“Rereading Mingyuan shiwei: Wang Duanshu’s (1621–ca. 1706) Contradictions of Male Poetry Critics of the Late Ming” in CLEAR: Chinese Literature Essays Articles Reviews, vol. 45, December 2023, 91-116.

“Editing Pipa ji for Late-Ming Popular Theater: The Identity of the ‘Singing Hermit’ and His Editorial Work” in Late Imperial China, vol. 41.1, Jun. 2020, 159-201.

Media Coverage

Social Media

www.youtube.com/user/shuidiyu

Country Focus

China

Expertise by Geography

China, East Asia, Korea

Expertise by Chronology

Pre-17th century, 17th century, Early Modern

Expertise by Topic

Art & Architectural History, Gender, Literary History, Women