Faculty-Discipline

Lili Xia

Lili Xia

Assistant Professor of Premodern Chinese Literature, Barnard College

Office:  317 Milbank Hall, Barnard College
Office Hours: T 4:10–6:00pm & by appointment

Email:  lxia@barnard.edu

Educational Background

BA: Fudan University

MA: Fudan University

PhD: Princeton University

Classes Taught

AHUM UN1400 Colloquium on Major Texts: East Asia

Research Interests

Lili Xia is a scholar of premodern Chinese literature. Her broader research interests include Sino-steppe interactions, cultural memory, print and book culture, intermediality, and digital humanities.

She is now working on her book project titled “North against South in Middle Period China: Classical Poetry and Literati Culture under Jurchen Jin Rule (1115–1234).” By demonstrating a rival narrative of claiming China in the Sino-Jurchen North against the cultural orthodoxy conceptualized in the Han Chinese-ruled South, the book illustrates the burgeoning literati culture under Jurchen rule, and fleshes out the Jin poetic production in particular. While making full use of Jin literary texts, this book is further enriched by art history and material culture, as well as digital tools of social network and geographic analysis to better represent Jin literati culture on the whole. Her research aims to reveal the heterotopia and heteroglossia of China as an intersubjective, transcultural, and border-crossing space in the Middle Period (800–1400 CE).

Before coming to Barnard, she received her B.A. and M.A. in Classical Chinese Literature at Fudan University, and her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies at Princeton University. She was the 2023–24 Louis Frieberg Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Selected Publications

“Qiuchi as Heterotopia: The Other Space for Su Shi.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 142.1 (2022): 93–119.

Review of Stephen Owen, All Mine! Happiness, Ownership, and Naming in Eleventh-Century China. The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 85.2 (2022): 325–27.

“Two Narratives of ‘Grand Peace’ in Northern Song Historiography and Cultural Memory of Song Contemporaries” (北宋仁、徽兩朝的“太平敍事”與宋人文化記憶). Zhonghua wenshi luncong (Journal of Chinese Literature and History) 139 (2020): 219–40. (in Chinese)

Mihoko Yagi

Mihoko Yagi

Lecturer in Japanese

Office: 516 Kent Hall
Office Hours: Wed & Thur 3-4 PM
Phone: (212) 854-3594
Email: my2891@columbia.edu

Educational Background

Ed.M: TESOL, Boston University
BA: Literature, Waseda University

Classes Taught

JPNS 1002 Introductory Japanese B
JPNS 1101 First Year Japanese I

Research Interests

Language Pedagogy

Mihoko Yagi joined the Japanese Language Program at Columbia in
2024. She received her BA in literature from Waseda University and her
Ed.M in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) from
Boston University. Prior to joining Columbia, she taught at Harvard
University and Boston University, where she had extensive experience
of teaching Japanese at various levels. She has also served as a Japanese
language department assistant at DePauw University. She is passionate
about bridging students’ learning in class to the real world.

Jia Xu

Jia Xu

Senior Lecturer in Chinese

Office: 506 Kent Hall
Office Hours: M 9:00-9:50, W 2:50-5:00
Phone: (212) 854-8545
Email: jx2196@columbia.edu

Educational Background

EdM: Educational Psychology: Cognitive Behavioral and Developmental Analysis, Teachers College, Columbia University

EdM: Curriculum and Methodology of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing Language and Culture University

BA: Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing Language and Culture University

Classes Taught

CHNS UN1101 First Year Chinese I

CHNS UN1102 First Year Chinese II

CHNS UN2201 Second Year Chinese N I

CHNS UN2202 Second Year Chinese N II

CHNS UN2221 Second Year Chinese W I

CHNS UN2222 Second Year Chinese W II

CHNS UN3003 Third Year Chinese N I

CHNS UN3004 Third Year Chinese N II

CHNS GU4015 Fourth Year Chinese N I

CHNS GU4016 Fourth Year Chinese N II

Research Interests

Educational Technology
Cognitive Science in Education
Chinese Language Pedagogy

Jia Xu joined the Columbia faculty in 2012. Prior to that, she taught all levels of Chinese at BLCU, serving as program coordinator and language instructor in the foreign diplomats program. She also taught in Columbia University’s Summer Program in Beijing. She set up and taught in the Chinese program at Bentley school in California. She has either authored or co-authored Chinese textbooks for Foreign Diplomats, the Great Wall Chinese series, Medical Chinese books, and all levels of the new HSK and YCT. Jia Xu currently teaches second-year and third-year Chinese and serves as second-year Chinese coordinator in EALAC.

Publications

Authentic Chinese (Volume I). Textbook. (Phoenix Tree Publishing Inc., 2023; co-author)   

Authentic Chinese (Volume I). Workbook. (Phoenix Tree Publishing Inc., 2023; co-author)

Teaching Standards, Approaches, and Techniques for K-12 Chinese Classes in the US (Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology, 2020)
Chinese for Foreign Diplomats, publication pending
Teaching Philosophy, Methods and Practices among U.S. K-12 Chinese Teachers (Intensive Chinese Language Educational Research, Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2011)
Great Wall Chinese(textbook and workbook), publication pending
Official Examination Papers of HSK Level 1 to Level 6 (Sinolingua, 2011; co-author)
Chinese Proficiency Test Syllabus Level 3, 5 & 6 (The Commercial Press, 2010; co-author)
Chinese Proficiency Test Syllabus Speaking, (The Commercial Press, 2010; co-author)
Official Examination Papers of YCT Level 1 to 4 (The Commercial Press, 2009; co-author)