Fran Zhao 赵洁敏

Field: Chinese Literature
Advisor: Wei Shang
Email: f.zhao@columbia.edu

Francesca is a PhD student majoring in premodern Chinese literature. For her dissertation, Francesca is working on the politics of the Ming (1368–1644) state theatre through the dual lenses of textualization and stage performance. Her research interests extend to the visual and material culture of East Asian religions.

Francesca has worked as a teaching assistant for courses on Chinese history, Buddhism, strategic visual communication, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). She was a Lead Teaching Fellow and Teaching Observation Fellow with the Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning. 

Francesca received her BSocSci (Hons) in Geography with a minor in GIS, and MA (Research) in History from the National University of Singapore. 

Yifan Zhang

Field: Chinese Literature
Advisor: Shang Wei
Email: yz2681@columbia.edu

Yifan is a Ph.D. student in Chinese literature, with a focus on the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1912). He received his B.A. (2014) from Peking University and M.A. (2016) from Columbia University. He works primarily on Ming-Qing short and long narratives, fiction in particular, and has a keen interest in examining how they speak to the issues that derive from and respond to urban history, local history, elite society, print culture, and material culture. His current dissertation project explores language practice and cultural innovation in the Wu dialect area that centers on Suzhou, the economic and cultural pivot in early modern China.