Jiayi Chen

My research interests center on the multiple relationships between literature and material objects during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Not limited to text-bearing objects and their materiality, I am specifically interested in the literary representation and imagination of material objects, as well as texts concerning collecting and displaying various objects. By means of theoretical tools in literature, anthropology, and art history, my research aims to enrich our understanding of not only the various roles played by material objects in people’s everyday life, but also the influence of material culture in shaping textual production and reception in Ming and Qing China.