Zach Berge-Becker

Field: Chinese History
Advisor: Robert Hymes
Email: zsb2109@columbia.edu

Zach Berge-Becker studies the history of snobbery in middle-period China. His research focuses on the social construction of new gentlemanly (shi, 士) identities after the fall of the medieval aristocracy in Tang, emphasizing the role of arts and leisure activities as markers of social distinction. His own leisure activities include cooking, playing guitar and the qin-zither 琴, and struggling to finish cryptic crosswords.