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Flair Donglai Shi

Dr Flair Donglai Shi施東來 PhD, Oxford; MSt, Oxford; MA, UCL

Associate Tutor in Translation Studies and Comparative Literature (Affiliation)

上海交通大學人文學院長聘教軌副教授(2022至今)

華威大學現代語言文化系翻譯研究與比較文學兼職教師(2018至今)

Permanent Email Address 聯繫方式: donglai dot shi at warwick dot ac dot uk (華威)

shidonglai at sjtu dot edu dot cn (交大)

About 背景介绍 (updated 2023 May)

Flair Donglai SHI (施東來) is currently Tenure-Track Associate Professor (World Literature and Comparative Cultural Studies) at the Institute of Arts and Humanities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and has been affiliated with Warwick as Associate Tutor in Translation Studies (Chinese and English) since 2018. Flair obtained his PhD in English (Comparative Literature) from Oxford University. From 2023, he has been hosting the "Transnational and Situated" global research seminar series online and serving as one of the founding editors of the De Gruyter journal Culture as Text . He also contributes cultural commentaries in both English and Chinese on popular media platforms such as Wenxuebao (文學報), Pengpai (澎湃) and SixthTone. Apart from academic work, Flair also offers translation services to assist commercial and cultural activities and has interpreted for honourable figures such as Mo Yan (莫言), Xu Bing (徐冰) and more. Flair welcomes all inquiries about possible research collaborations in different formats.

Research Interests 研究興趣

Flair’s current monograph project is entitled “Yellow Peril Revisited: Mutations, Reactions, and Reincarnations”, which investigates the racist concept of “the Yellow Peril” as a traveling discourse in contexts as diverse as early 20th century England, Apartheid South Africa and post-Mao China and the wider Sinophone world. It aims to revise the dominant paradigms in Postcolonial Studies and Sinophone Studies by highlighting the shifting agency activated by literary as well as visual appropriations. He is initiating another book-length project on the representations of China-Africa interactions in contemporary cultural products, which investigates interracial relations as portrayed in literatures and films from China and a range of African countries including Zambia, Lesotho, Kenya, Zimbabwe, etc. His other research interests include Alice in Wonderland and China, theories of World Literature, modern Chinese and Taiwanese literature in translation, as well as the Global South as a genre of fiction.

*From 2017 onwards he has been invited to do occasional peer reviewing by an array of academic journals including Cultural Critique(SSCI and A&HCI), Inter-Asia Cultural Studies(SSCI and A&HCI), International Feminist Journal of Politics(SSCI), Literature Compass(A&HCI), Chinese Literature and Thought Today(A&HCI), Comparative Critical Studies(A&HCI), ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment(A&HCI), Kritika Kultura(A&HCI), Critical Arts(A&HCI), Life Writing (A&HCI), CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture(A&HCI), Journal of Chinese Film Studies, Oxford Research in English, Comparative Literature & World Literature, East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, Journal of Transcultural Communication, and The Wenshan Review.

Public Seminar Series "Transnational and Situated"

在地跨文化·系列研討會 (2023-ongoing)

At Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Flair hosts a regular public seminar series named "Transnational and Situated" which invites established academics and early career researchers to discuss different aspects of transnationalism from the interdisciplinary perspectives of comparative literature, film and media studies, history and cultural anthropology. Guests invited so far include David Der-wei Wang (Harvard), Elleke Boehmer (Oxford), Dai Jinhua (PKU), Haun Saussy (Chicago), Chris Berry (KCL), etc. Please check out our public WeChat Account, Facebook, or Youtube Channel for more information.

Key Publications 主要發表

Shi, Flair Donglai 施東來. ‘The Same-sex Marriage that Remains Unattainable: Thoughts on the Entanglements of “Left” and “Right” in Contemporary Discursive Fields across the Taiwan Strait (無法達成的同志婚姻: 關於當代兩岸思想輿論場中 「左」「右」糾葛的思考)’, Reflexion (思想) No. 49 (2024): 253-261. (Taiwan, solicited by guest editor)

Shi, Flair Donglai. 'Out of the Yellow/Black Peril Discourse: Humanizing China-Africa Relations in Mukuka Chipanta’s A Casualty of Power’, Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 58, no. 3 (2021, Special Issue on Global South Studies edited by Anne Garland Mahler and Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra): 623-646. (US, peer reviewed, A&HCI)

Shi, Flair Donglai. ‘Reconsidering Sinophone Studies: The Chinese Cold War, Multiple Sinocentrisms, and Theoretical Generalisation’, International Journal of Taiwan Studies, Vol. 4, no. 2 (2021): 311-344. (UK/Taiwan/The Netherlands, peer reviewed, ESCI)

Shi, Flair Donglai. ‘Reborn Translated: Xiaolu Guo as a World Author’, Kritika Kultura, no. 36 (2021): 166-194. (The Philippines, peer reviewed, A&HCI)

Shi, Flair Donglai. ‘Translating the Translational: A Comparative Study of the Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese Translations of Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers’, Translation and Literature, Vol. 30, no. 1 (2021): 1-29. (UK, peer reviewed, A&HCI)

Shi, Flair Donglai. ‘Literary Resonances against Ideological Echo Chambers: Wu Zhuoliu’s Orphan of Asia and the Necessity of World Literature’, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, Vol. 47, no. 4 (2020, Special Issue on the Cultural Resonance and the Echo Chamber of Reading edited by Shuangyi Li): 552-571. (Canada, invited by editor and peer reviewed, ESCI)

Shi, Flair Donglai. ‘Sinophobia Will Never be the Same after COVID-19’, Made in China Journal, Vol. 5, Issue. II (2020): 176-183 and 307-311. (Australia, invited by editor and peer reviewed, Open Access)

Shi, Flair Donglai and Tan, Gareth Guangming. (eds.) (2020) World Literature in Motion: Institution, Recognition, Location. Stuttgart and New York: Ibidem, with Columbia University Press, 532 pages; containing two single-authored chapters “Introduction: A Manifesto for Critical World Literature Studies.” (13-42) and “The Failure of the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Politics of Recognition.” (255-285) (Germany/US, series editors double reviewed)

Shi, Flair Donglai. (2019) “The Yellow Peril as a Travelling Discourse: A Comparative Study of Wang Lixiong’s China Tidal Wave.” Comparative Critical Studies, 16(1), 7-30. (UK, double peer reviewed, A&HCI)

Shi, Flair Donglai 施東來. (2018) (in Chinese) “The Translational Strategies of Legend of the Condor Heroes (《射雕英雄傳》英譯本的翻譯策略)”, Wenxuebao (文學報), special online long feature. (China, solicited by editor)

Shi, Flair Donglai. (2017) “Coming out of History and Coming Home: Homosexual Identification in Pai Hisen-yung’s Crystal Boys.” Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, 39, 135-152. (US, double peer reviewed, MLA Index)

Shi, Flair Donglai. (2016) “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as an Anti-Feminist Text: Historical, Psychoanalytical, and Postcolonial Perspectives.” Women: A Cultural Review, 27(2), 177-201. (UK, double peer reviewed, ESCI)

Shi, Flair Donglai. (2016) “Post-Mao Chinese Literature as World Literature: Struggling with the Systematic and the Allegorical.” Comparative Literature & World Literature, 1(1), 20-34. (China/US, double peer reviewed, inaugural issue)

Critical Book Review Essays:

• ‘Book Review for David Der-wei Wang (ed.), A New Literary History of Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017)', China Review International, Vol. 24, Issue. 1 (2019): 60-67.

• (with Min Hui Yeo) ‘Book Review for Hee Wai Siam (許維賢), Post-Malaysian Chinese-language Film: Accented Style, Sinophone and Auteur Theory 華語電影在後馬來西亞:土腔風格、華夷風與作者論 (Taipei: Lianjin, 2018)', East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 4, Issue. 2 (2018): 165-170. (solicited by author)

• ‘Book Review for Svend Erik Larsen, Literature and the Experience of Globalisation: Texts without Borders (London: Bloomsbury, 2017)', Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Vol. 54, Issue. 5 (2018): 718-719. (invited by editor)

• ‘Book Review for Sarah Brouillette, Literature and the Creative Economy (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2014)', Oxford Research in English, Issue. 6 (2018): 73-77.

Major Academic Grants and Awards 主要學術項目/獎項:

  • (2023-2024) Collaborative Teaching Fund (¥90,000), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in partial support for teaching collaboration with Matthew Reynolds (Oxford)
  • (2023-2024) SJTU-Warwick Collaborative Seed Fund (£10,000), Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Warwick University, for the project "Chinese British Authors and the Practice of World Literature" with Jane Qian Liu (Wariwck)
  • (2023-2024) British Council and UK-China Humanities Alliance Visiting Scholars Award (£2,500), University of Exeter, for the project "Race and China-Africa Relations on Screen" with Xiaoning Lu (SOAS)
  • (2022-2025) Overseas Talent Scheme for Leading Scholars in the Humanities (¥750,000), Shanghai Municipal Government, for my overall research work
  • (2022-2025) Research Initiation Support (¥300,000), Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • (2016-2020) Full PhD funding and living stipends (≈£110,000), China Scholarship Council

(更多信息詳見 for more information with CV is available at https://oxford.academia.edu/FlairDonglaiShiLink opens in a new window)

Books

Read the Introduction hereLink opens in a new window

See a recorded talk on my chapter on the failure of the Man Asian Literary Prize here

Founding Editorial Team at:

From 2023 onwards I have been acting as one of the founding editors of the new De Gruyter/Brill journal, Culture as Text, responsible for its comparative literature section. Submissions welcome.


With Mo Yan in Oxford:


Latest Writings in Popular Media:


Courses Taught at Warwick:

(MA in Translation and Cultures) --

  • LN902 Translation Portfolio
  • LN904 Dissertation in Translation Studies (Chinese-English)

Courses Taught at Oxford:

  • Chinese British History through Literature and Film
  • An Introduction to the Comparative Study of Modern Chinese Literature
  • Dissertation Co-supervision (BA in English)
  • Dissertation Co-Supervision (MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation)

Courses Taught at Shanghai Jiao Tong University:

(MA in Modern Chinese Studies, English)

  • A Critical Introduction to Sinology and Chinese Studies (漢學批評)
  • Understanding the Rise of China through Film (電影視角下的中國崛起)
  • Independent Dissertation Supervision (碩士畢業論文導師)

(in development, bilingual)

  • Transnational Chinese Cinema and Local Diasporic Culture (跨國華人電影與在地離散文化)
  • Concepts of World Literature: Writers, Theories, and Debates (世界文學辯論)
  • Representing China-Africa Interactions in Culture (中非文化研究)

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