Rate My Professor Zhi Chen

Professor Zhi Chen is the President and Chair Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU). He earned a Bachelor's degree in History from Peking University, an MPhil in Chinese Literature from Nanjing University, and a PhD in Chinese Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. His career includes teaching positions at the National University of Singapore and the University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) in 2000. At HKBU, he served as Head of the Department of Chinese from 2010 to 2013, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 2015 to 2017, and Founding Director of the Mr. Simon Suen and Mrs. Mary Suen Sino-Human Institute from 2011 to 2014. He was Founding Acting Director of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology from 2012 to 2014 and has been its Director since 2014. Additionally, he acted as Board Director of Wuhan College from 2018, Vice President (Academic) at BNBU from 2018, Provost from 2020, and President of Hong Kong Chu Hai College from 2022 to 2024. A Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities, he was the local convenor for Chinese Language and Literature in the Humanities Panel of the Research Assessment Exercise 2009-14.

Professor Chen's research focuses on Shi jing studies, excavated inscriptions and manuscripts, ancient Chinese history, and intellectual history, extending to classical studies, early Chinese culture and history, historical writings, traditional Chinese poetry, bronze inscriptions, bamboo and silk writings, and intellectual history of the Ming and Qing dynasties. He has published extensively in top-tier academic venues across the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Greater China. Notable publications include "The Legacy of the Odes, Documents, Ritual Music," "Interviews with Yu Ying-shih," "Papers on Interdisciplinary Study of the Book of Odes," "The Shaping of the Book of Songs: From Ritualization to Secularization," and "The Narration of China" (Parts 1 and 2). As founding Editor-in-Chief, he oversees journals and series such as Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia, Ancient Languages and Civilizations, the Bulletin of the Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology, and the Early China Book Series, enhancing the global impact of Sinology.