About

Jane Qian Liu is Associate Professor in Translation and Chinese Studies. She completed her DPhil degree in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, and taught four years at Beijing Normal University. She also taught modern and contemporary Chinese literature at the University of British Columbia before joining Warwick. She has published in English and in Chinese on modern Chinese literature, translation studies, and comparative literature, including Transcultural Lyricism: Translation, Intertextuality, and the Rise of Emotion in Modern Chinese Love Fiction, 1899-1925 (Brill, 2017), and ‘The Making of Transcultural Lyricism in Su Manshu’s Fiction Writing’ (Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, 2016). She is associate editor of Comparative Literature & World Literature.

Research interests

Jane Qian Liu's research examines the creative translation carried out by Chinese translators at the beginning of the twentieth century, how they read, misread, and rewrote foreign fictional works. She also discusses the intertextual relationship between modern Chinese literature and translations of European literature. Her first book, Transcultural Lyricism: Translation, Intertextuality, and the Rise of Emotion in Modern Chinese Love Fiction, 1899-1925 ((Brill, 2017) focuses on the intricate process of literary influence in translingual and cross-cultural settings, and in particular that which is reflected in literary translation and creation. She is currently completing her second monograph which explores the reading of translated love stories among Chinese readers in early twentieth century and contains the scenario with a brand new conceptual framework, combining the examination of translated texts with the experience of reading, and ultimately that of metaphysical reflections on the phenomenon of morbus litterarius.

Teaching and supervision

Postgraduate

LN902 Translation Portfolio

LN903 Trans/national Cultures

LN 910 Translation and Transcultural Encounters between China and the West (convenor)

LN904 Dissertation in Translation Studies (convenor)

Research Supervision

Dr Liu welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students with a keen interest in East-West cultural and literary exchanges, and history of translation in China in the twentieth century.

Recent Publications

Monographs

Jane Qian Liu. Obsessed with Reading: Bovaristic Reading of Translated Love Stories in Early Twentieth-century China. Routledge (forthcoming 2025)

Liu Qian. Yiyu zhi ai: Huwenxing fanyi lilun shijiao xia de Zhongguo jinxiandai aiqing xiaoshuo de yi yu zhuan 异域之爱：互文性翻译理论视角下的中国近现代爱情小说的译与撰 Exotic Love: Translation and Creation of Romantic Stories in Early Twentieth-century China from An Intertextual Translation Perspective. (Peking University Press, forthcoming)

Jane Qian Liu. Transcultural Lyricism: Translation, Intertextuality, and the Rise of Emotion in Modern Chinese Love Fiction, 1899-1925. Brill, 2017.

Articles

Jane Qian Liu. “Obsessed with Translation: Bovaristic Reading of Translated Love Stories in Early Twentieth-Century China”, Modern Languages Quarterly 2024 (85:3): 303-325.

Jane Qian Liu. “Bovaristic Renderings: Zhou Shoujuan’s Pseudotranslation and the Creation of an Alternative Romantic Space”, in Cosima Bruno, Lucas Klein, and Chris Song eds. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Modern Chinese Literature in Translation, 91-102. London: Bloomsbury, 2024.

Liu Qian. “Minchu ‘Chahuanv’ fudu shijian kaobian: jian bian Chahuanv zai jindai Zhongguo de yingxiang” 民初“茶花女” 服毒事件考辨——兼辨《茶花女》在近代中国的影响 (A Study on the ‘Chinese Camille taking poison’ Incident in the Early Republican Era, with a Further Analysis on the Influence of La Dame aux Camélias in Early Twentieth-century China). China Book Review 2023 (8): 63-70.

Jane Qian Liu. "Memory Lost and Revived: Zhang Chengzhi's Fictional Works on Educated Youth Sent to the Countryside." Kritika Kultura 2022 (38): 166-194.

Liu Qian. “Sui zan ji dui Yibusheng shiju Bulangde de yinyong jiqi biaoyi zuoyong yanjiu: jianlun Su Manshu de fanyu yu wenxue guannian” 《碎簪记》对易卜生诗剧《布朗德》的引用及其表意作用研究——兼论苏曼殊的翻译与文学观念 (The quotation of Ibsen’s Brand in The Broken Hairpin and its meaning, with a discussion on Su Manshu’s translation practices and literary conceptions). Contemporary Comparative Literature 2022 Vol. 9: 259-286.

Liu Qian. “Yingyu shijie de Zhongguo jindai fanyi wenxue yanjiu” 英语世界的中国近代翻译文学研究 “Transcultural Interpretations of Translingual Practice: the Study of Early Modern Chinese Literary Translation in the English-speaking World.” International Sinology, 2021 No. 4: 102-110.

Liu Qian. "Hu Shi, Luo Jialun fanyi de Nuola yu Yibusheng zai xiandai Zhongguo de jieshou" 胡适、罗家伦翻译的《娜拉》与易卜生在现代中国的接受 The Origin of Misreading: Hu Shi and Luo Jialun's Translation of Nora and the (Mis)reception of Ibsen in Modern China, Journal of Tsinghua University, 2021 No. 6. Vol. 36: 77-84.

Liu Qian. “Houzhiminzhuyi shiye zhong de shijie wenxue” 後殖民主義視野中的世界文學 “World Literature from the Perspective of Postcolonialism”. Journal of Macao Polytechnic Institute 2021 (2): 144-154

Jane Qian Liu. “Pseudotranslation, Intertextuality and Metafictionality: Three Case Studies of Pseudotranslation from Early Twentieth-Century China.” Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, vol. 27, issue 3, 2019: 389-403

Liu Qian. “Qiantan huwenxing lilun wei fanyi yanjiu tigong de fangfalun qidi: yi weiyi yanjiu weili” 浅谈互文性理论为翻译研究提供的方法论启迪——以伪译研究为例 “On the Methodological Framework Provided for Translation Studies by Intertextuality Theories, with Pseudotranslation Studies as an Example.” Culture and Poetics, 2017.

Liu Qian. “Shanbian zhong de ganjue jiegou: Yuanyang hudie pai yanqing xiaoshuo zhong de maodun qinggan” 嬗变中的感觉结构：鸳鸯蝴蝶派言情小说中的矛盾情感 “Structure of Feeling in Transition: Ambivalent Emotions in the Love Fiction of Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School”. Journal of Macao Polytechnic Institute, no. 1, 2017.

Jane Qian Liu. “The Making of Transcultural Lyricism in Su Manshu’s Fiction Writing”. Modern Chinese Literature and Culture vol. 28, no. 2. 2016.

Liu Qian. “Xifang shoufa yu fanfeng yitu: Shihei Yixiong Bei maizang de juren dui qishi wenxue de jieyong” 戏仿手法与反讽意图——石黑一雄《被埋葬的巨人》对骑士文学的借用 “Parody and Irony: Cavalier Literature in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant”. Contemporary Foreign Literature no. 3, 2016.

Liu Qian. “Jiyi, ai yu siwang: tan Shihei Yixiong de xinzuo Bei maizang de juren” 记忆、爱与死亡——谈石黑一雄的新作《被埋葬的巨人》 “Memory, Love and Death: Kazuo Ishiguro’s New Novel The Buried Giant”. Reading no. 5, 2016.

Liu Qian. “Zhongguo gudian yishu dui Luojie Fulai xingshizhuyi meixue de yingxiang” 中国古典艺术对罗杰·弗莱形式主义美学的影响 “The influence of classical Chinese art on Roger Fry’s formalist aesthetics”. Journal of Harbin College no. 6, 2016.

Liu Qian. “Kuayue shikong de wenxue yinyuan: Luojie Fulai de Zhongguo gudian yishu yanjiu yu Yingguo xiandaizhuy wenxue” 跨越时空的文学因缘：罗杰·弗莱的中国古典艺术研究与英国现代主义文学 “Literary Relationship that Crosses Time and Space: Roger Fry’s Studies of Classical Chinese Art and British Modernist Literature”. Cultures and Literary Theories in China and Abroad no. 2, 2015.

Book Reviews

Liu Qian. “Zhuixun Fuloubai de yingwu” 追寻福楼拜的鹦鹉 “In pursuit of Flaubert’s Parrot: a review on Julian Barnes’ Flaubert’s Parrot”, China Book Review 2021(5): 98-105. (China Book Review "Good Book Review of the Year")

Jane Qian Liu. Douglas Robinson. Exorcising Translation: Towards an Intercivilizational Turn. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017. ISBN: 9781501326042.Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Reviews, 2018 (11)

Jane Qian Liu. Peng Hsiao-yen and Isabelle Rabut, eds. Modern China and the West: Translation and Cultural Mediation. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014. ISBN: 9789004270237. Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Reviews, 2014 (12)

Jane Qian Liu. Stalling, Jonathan. Yingelishi. Denver: Counterpath, 2011. ISBN 978-1933996-23-3. World Literature Today, 2012(7/8): 72

Selected Translations (English into Chinese)

Bob Eckstein. Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores. Trans. Liu Qian. Beijing: Commercial Press, 2021.

（Radio interview about the translation of Footnotes from the World's Greatest Bookstores）

David Derwei Wang. “Six Modernist Poets in Search of Du Fu.” Trans. Liu Qian. Contemporary Writers Review, 2019 (4): 183-193.

Stephen Owen. “Stepping Forward and Back: Issues and Possibilities for ‘World’ Poetry.” Shijie wenxue lilin duben (Theories of World Literature, a Reader). Trans. Liu Qian. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2013.

Andrew Jones. “Chinese Literature in the ‘World’ Literary Economy.” Shijie wenxue lilin duben (Theories of World Literature, a Reader). Trans. Liu Qian. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2013.

Interviews

Henrietta Harrison and Jane Qian Liu. “Chinese Studies in the UK: an Interview with Professor Henrietta Harrison." Comparative Literature & World Literature, 7(1), 2022: 53-58.

Douglas Robinson and Jane Qian Liu. “The Intercivilizational Turn of Translation Studies: An Interview with Professor Douglas Robinson.” Comparative Literature & World Literature, 4(2), 2019.

Rebecca L. Walkowitz and Jane Qian Liu. “Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant, and Issues of World Literature: An Interview with Professor Rebecca L. Walkowitz.” Comparative Literature & World Literature, 4(2), 2019.

Administrative Roles

• Head of Translation and Transcultural Studies (interim) (2024-2025)
• Director of Research for Translation and Transcultural Studies (2024-2025)
• Personal Tutor
• MA Translation and Culture Overseas Admissions Tutor

Qualifications

Ph.D. University of Oxford, Oriental Studies, 2014

M.A. Beijing Normal University, Comparative Literature and World Literature, 2010

B.A. Beijing Normal University, Chinese Language and Literature, 2007

B.A. Subsidury Beijing Normal University, English Language and Literature, 2007

Professional Associations

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

British Association for Chinese Studies

Association of Asian Studies

American Comparative Literature Association

Chinese Association for Translators

Chinese Comparative Literature Association

East Asian Translation Pedagogy Advance

Current PhD students

Miss Di ZHAO (completed 2024)

Miss Shaoyu YANG

Miss Yuqing ZHANG

Miss Xinyao ZHANG

Miss Ambra Minoli

Miss Yaqi Xi