Cecile Chu-Chin Sun

Associate Professor
Chinese Literature and Poetry

704 Old Engineering Hall
412-624-5567
Fax: 412-624-3458
csun@pitt.edu

Office Hours
Mondays and Wednesdays from 2-3

Education

• B.A. in English Literature from National Taiwan Normal University, Summa cum Laude, No. 1 in graduating class and throughout the four years at NTNU
  
• M.A. in English Literature from Boston College
  
• M.A. in Chinese Literature from Harvard University
  
• Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University, winner of the Kinsley award for the best dissertation
  

Fields of Research

1. Classical Chinese lyric poetry and aesthetics

2. Chinese-Western Comparative Poetry and Poetics

3. Traditional Chinese thought systems (Confucianism, Daoism, Chan Buddhism),

4. Traditional and modern Chinese literature

5. Cross-cultural translation

6. Daoist aesthetics

Courses Taught

1. Classical Chinese
2. Chinese-Western Comparative Poetry
3. Great Minds of China (Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi and the Sutra of Huineng)
4. Exploring China from Roots to Blooms (Formation of Chinese characters; the concept and application of Qi; the concept of change as expressed in the Yijing [The Book of Changes]; The Military Strategy of Sunzi; and the Aesthetics of Chinese Gardens)
5. Traditional Chinese Fiction
6. Modern Chinese Fiction
7. Classical Chinese Poetry
8. Seminar on The Dream of the Red Chamber

Selected Publications and Academic Activities since 1995

Publications:

"Pearl From the Dragon’s Mouth: Evocation of Scene and Feeling in Chinese Poetry" (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies Publication, The University of Michigan), 1995. 248 pp.

"Wang Guowei (1877-1927) as Translator of Values,” in Translation and Creation, ed. David Pollard (Amsterdam, Holland: John Benjamins Publishing Co), 1998, pp. 253-283.

"Cultural Dimensions of Translation: The Case of Translating Classical Chinese Poetry into English,” Tamkang Review (Taipei: Tamkang University), XXXI, No. 4- XXXII, No. 1 (Summer -Autumn 2001), pp. 59-97.

"Two Views on Mutability: A Comparative Reading of Chinese and English Poems,” Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press), 51 (2003-04), pp. 143-158.

"A Dialogue between a Fish and a Nightingale” (in Chinese), in the Literary Supplement of the United Daily News (Taiwan), May 12, 2004.

"Zhuangzi, Huizi, and Keats: Points of View in Chinese and Western Epistemology,” in Wenshi zhishi (Journal of Literature and History), October 2004 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju), pp. 83-87.

"Mimesis and Xing--Two Modes of Viewing Reality: Comparing English and Chinese Poetry,” in Comparative Literature Studies--Special Issue on Classics and Contemporary Literature/Culture/Theory (University Park: Penn State University), 43, 3, 2006, pp. 325-353.

"When Metaphor is Not Metaphor: The Chinese Counterpart to Western Metaphor in Lyric Poetry,” in Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics, 7 (New York: AMS Press). Submitted in July, 2006; forthcoming, 15 pp.

"The Poetics of Repetition: Comparing English and Chinese Lyric Poetry," a book manuscript (400 pp.) completed in May, 2006; under consideration for publication.

Academic Activities:

"Cultural Dimensions of Translation,” a talk given at Association of Asian Studies (AAS) Conference in Boston, March, 1999.

"Ecology, Language, Nature, and Man,” delivered at the 12th World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA), Tokyo, Japan, August 6, 1999.

"Translation and Biculturalism,” a public talk as part of the prestigious Annual Humanities Lecture Series sponsored by National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan, Dec. 14, 2002.

“Two Modes of Repetition in Chinese and Anglo-American Poetry,” a lecture given at the Graduate Institute of Comparative Literature, Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taipei, April 24, 2003.

"Distinctions between Chinese and English Poetry,” a paper presented at the International Conference on Arts and Humanities, University of Hawaii, Jan. 10, 2004.

"Translationality and Transnationality,” a paper given at the American Comparative Literature Association, University of Michigan, April 16, 2004.

"Wide Seas and Mulberry Fields in Chinese and Western Poetry,” a talk given at the Graduate Program of Comparative Literature of Soochow University, Taipei, Dec. 18, 2004.

"Reorienting the Study of Chinese Literature/Culture,” a lecture presented at the 34th Annual Conference of the Mid-Atlantic Region Association of Asian Studies, University of Pittsburgh, October 29, 2005.

"Locating a Common Basis for Comparing Chinese and English Poetry,” a lecture given at the Graduate Institute of Comparative Literature, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taipei, December 21, 2005.

"Comparing the Radical Distinctions in Chinese and English Lyric Poetry,” a lecture given to the Shanghai Branch of the Association of Comparative Literature, Shanghai, China, July 12, 2006.

"Repetition in Chinese and Western Culture and Poetry,” a lecture given at “Asia Over Lunch” sponsored by the Asian Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh, Nov. 16, 2006.

A series of lectures on translating Chinese Poetry into English, given at the Graduate Institute of Comparative Literature at Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan from May 17-June28, 2007

"How to Compare Such Diverse Lyrical Traditions as Chinese and Anglo-American Poetry"a three-hour lecture given to the Department of Chinese Literature at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. June 14, 2007.

"The Poetics of Repetition,” a lecture given at the Comparative Literature Forum co-sponsored by Beijing University and Fujen University in Taipei, June 28, 2007.

Hobbies

Music, Taiji, Chinese medicine, horticulture, creative writing. and creative cooking