Welcome! My name is Yanshuo Zhang. I am an interdisciplinary scholar and professor of Chinese and Asian cultures. I am currently Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Literatures at Pomona College in California. After receiving my PhD from Stanford University in East Asian Languages and Cultures, I served as a lecturer at Stanford’s undergraduate Program in Writing and Rhetoric.
Growing up in Chengdu, China, I was immersed in the multiethnic and multicultural environment of southwest China at a young age. While pursuing my PhD at Stanford, I picked up Tibetan and Japanese languages. A speaker of five languages in total (the other three are Chinese, English, and French!), I have studied and traveled in three continents. I served as a Research Intern at the French Ministry of Culture in Paris in 2013, where I was shown Da Vinci’s beautiful paintings in restoration. In the summer of 2015, I participated in an international program at Ritsumeikan University outside of Japan’s ancient capital, Kyoto.
A traveler and ardent learner of world cultures, I believe that the best way to connect people is through constantly discovering the surprises and unexpected connections that different cultures share. I value scholarship, deep conversations, and emphatic understandings of “difference.”
My current research lies at the intersections of literature, anthropology, visual culture and history. My work expands the current scholarship and teaching about China in North America by bringing ethnic minorities and cultural diversity to the forefront of understanding Chinese society and history.
As the Principal Investigator (PI), I am leading an award-winning project honored by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)’s Inaugural Collaborative Grant in China Studies to promote the teaching and educational engagement with China’s ethnic minority literatures and cultures in North America through developing open-access teaching and educational platforms to showcase the rich literary, historical, and visual material aspects of China’s multiethnic communities. I also curate art exhibitions for universities and galleries.
Selected Honors and Awards by Yanshuo Zhang
Inaugural Collaborative Grant in China Studies, American Council of Learned Societies, 2024
Special Congressional Recognition for Outstanding and Invaluable Service to the Community
Research Intern, French Ministry of Culture, Paris, 2013
China Times Young Scholar Award
Dissertation Award, Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
Tibetan village and Buddhist temple nested in the Aba-Barkam region in the Himalayas. Photos by Yanshuo Zhang
Yanshuo Zhang 