Angelo Wong

Angelo 王若 grew up in Hong Kong. He received his BA from the University of Hong Kong and his MA and MPhil from Columbia University.

His PhD dissertation project at Columbia follows the development of genres of popular print collections of oral narratives in early modern Japan, focusing particularly on collections of comic narratives (hanashibon) and narratives depicting the supernatural (kaidanshū). Examining a range of such collections from the 17th to the 19th centuries, it explores how oral storytelling cultures intersected with print literature in playful and socially-aware ways, like imagining differences between the country’s provinces or parodying urban class hierarchies. It also examines the depiction of supernatural entities like ghosts and monsters in early modern popular literature, shedding light on the imagination of the beyond-human at a time marked by a fluid ambivalence about the existence of such beings.

Angelo was a runner up in the 5th JLPP International Translation Competition (2020).

In his free time, Angelo enjoys exploring New York’s parks. He is also a gamer and an anime fan.