Professor Jon von Kowallis

Dr. Jon Eugene von Kowallis is Professor of Chinese Studies in the School of Humanities and Languages at UNSW. He studied Chinese language and literature at Columbia University in the City of New York (BA), National Taiwan University, the University of Hawaii (MA in Chinese literature), Beijing University and the University of California, Berkeley (PhD in Oriental Languages, specializing in Chinese literature). Prior to UNSW, he worked as a Foreign Expert (Editor / Translator) at the Foreign Languages Press, Beijing and taught at Berkeley, UCLA, Oregon, Williams College, Karlova (Prague), and the University of Melbourne. The Chinese Studies program at UNSW has the largest student enrolments of any Chinese program in Australia, with over 1600 students enrolled in the many and diverse, discipline-based undergraduate courses offered on Chinese language and culture. He has served as President of the Oriental Society of Australia, the oldest professional organization of Asianists in the country and continues as President of the Australian Society for Asian Humanities. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (London), and the Australian Academy of the Humanities (Canberra).

Jon’s research, writing and his second university press book, The Subtle Revolution: Poets of the ‘Old Schools’ in late Qing and early Republican China (Berkeley: University of California, China Research Monographs #60) on the role of classical Chinese poetry during the modern era have influenced the direction of an entire field on rethinking the role of traditional genres, both in articulating and in reflecting the modern era. His book not only argues a thesis about the entry of modernity into Chinese letters in the late 19th / early 20th century, but also challenges the dominant paradigm in Chinese literary history.

His research in this field has been recognised as ground-breaking, both within and outside China: it has already occasioned PhD dissertations at Princeton University, UCLA, and book reviews of the monograph have been published in China Review International, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (Wisconsin), The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (London) and The Journal of Asian Studies (Ann Arbor).

Prior to his present projects, he had already become an internationally acknowledged authority on the father of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun (1881-1936), and as the principal Western scholar on his classical-style poetry due to his monograph The Lyrical Lu Xun: a Study of his Classical-style Verse (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press). Jon writes in Chinese as well as English and his articles and reviews have appeared in Lu Xun Yanjiu Yuekan (Lu Xun Research Monthly), Shanghai Lu Xun Yanjiu (Shanghai Lu Xun Research), Wen yu Zhe (Literature and Philosophy) and other prominent Chinese-language journals. In addition, he has published articles and book chapters on Chinese cinema and the diaspora.

His ARC Discovery Project "The Young Lu Xun and His Early Work Written in Japan" (as chief investigator) focuses on the seminal early work of Lu Xun (1881-1936), the founder of modern Chinese literature. It aims to examine and analyse his earliest essays written in Japan, which have not been adequately studied in regard to their relationship with Western sources and Japanese influence, reconstructing the late Meiji-era intellectual milieu among Chinese intellectuals in Tokyo (1902-1909) in which Lu Xun’s early essays were written.

Findings have deepened academic grasp of Chinese intellectual relations with the West and Japan, the influence of Western learning leading up to the May-Fourth era (1919-) and its resurgence in the post-Mao period (1976-present), and historical causes for the rise of the guoxue (traditional studies) cult and nationalism in present-day China. This has contributed to establishing Australian Chinese Studies as a third voice in the Asia-Pacific region. This project is undertaking a ground-breaking investigation in the history of Chinese literature. It will contribute to better understanding of China: its language transformation, intellectual history, cultural trends relevant to economic growth; and will help raise Australia’s scholarly profile, enhance our capacity to interpret and engage in regional and global discourse.

Jon's research continues in the direction of biographical, bibliographical and intellectual history focussed on Lu Xun but extending to Lu Xun's influence in Japan, and Takeuchi Yoshimi's influence on contemporary Chinese intellectuals. He has just translated Ro Jin (Lu Xun), Takeuchi's classic work of Lu Xun studies from the original 1944 Japanese text with Joshua A. Fogel (York University, Canada). In 2023 he was awarded the senior Fellowship of the China-US Scholars Program (the Biden administration's successor to the Fulbright Research Fellowship for China, which was ended by Trump) spending the autumn term doing research at Fudan University in Shanghai on contemporary Chinese theatre, a case in point being the work of Taiwan playwright / director Lai Sheng-chuan in mainland China. He conducted research at Shang Juchang (Theatre Above) in Shanghai, the Wuzhen Theatre Festival, and Huichang Theatre Season, speaking in Mandarin at numerous conferences and participating in the Wuzhen Dialogues with playwright / director Li Jianjun on his newest work A Q Zhengzhuan (The True Story of Ah Q), a contemporary theatrical adaptation of Lu Xun's 1921 novella.

Below are links to two video conversations by Jon with Singaporean scholar Dr Lim Wah-guan. In them Jon explains his own interest in China, in author Lu Xun 鲁迅 (1881-1936), and the question of the entry of modernity into Chinese literature through the vehicle of classical-style poetry in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries by Wang Kaiyun王闿运，Fan Zengxiang 樊增祥，Yi Shunding易顺鼎，Chen Sanli陈三立，Chen Yan陈衍，and Zheng Xiaoxu 郑孝胥。

The first video interview is in Mandarin (15 mins), the second in English (30 mins). Topics covered are the same but the contents differ slightly.

Here are direct links to the videos:

https://youtu.be/2H3bOUdzfuM, opens in a new window

https://youtu.be/SXAjtVMCyDU, opens in a new window

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