Leo Ou-fan Lee (; born 10 October 1942) is a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

commentator and author who was elected Fellow of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...

in 2002. Lee also was a professor at

Chinese University of Hong Kong The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a public research university in Ma Liu Shui, Hong Kong, formally established in 1963 by a charter granted by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong. It is the territory's second-oldest university an ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Lee has served as columnist of several publications, such as the ''

Yazhou Zhoukan ''Yazhou Zhoukan'' () is a Chinese-language international affairs newsweekly. It was launched in 1987 by Michael O'Niell as a sister magazine to ''Asiaweek''. It is published by Yanzhou Zhoukan Limited (a subsidiary of Media Chinese International ...

'', ''

Hong Kong Economic Journal The ''Hong Kong Economic Journal'' (HKEJ). is a Chinese-language daily newspaper published in Hong Kong by the Shun Po Co., Ltd.. Available in both Hong Kong and Macau, the newspaper mainly focuses on economic news and other related, usuall ...

'', ''

Ming Pao ''Ming Pao'' () is a Chinese-language newspaper published by Media Chinese International in Hong Kong. In the 1990s, ''Ming Pao'' established four overseas branches in North America; each provides independent reporting on local news and colle ...

'', and ''

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

''.

Biography

Lee was born in a wealthy and highly educated family in

Taikang County Taikang County (), formerly known as Yangjia County or Yangxia County, is a county in the north of Zhoukou prefecture-level city, in the east of Henan province, China. It is divided into 23 townships and 766 villages. The county is home to 1.43 mil ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

in 1942. Both his father Li Yonggang () and mother Zhou Yuan () were musicians and educators. His given name "Ou-fan" is the Chinese version of

Orpheus Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jaso ...

, the Greek god of music. Lee graduated from

National Hsinchu Senior High School National Hsinchu Senior High School () is a high school in East District, Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Student enrollment averages around 2200. Although traditionally an all-boy institution, National Hsinchu Senior High School started admitting femal ...

and

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

. He first took a master's degree from

, where he was inspired by

T.H. Tsien Tsien Tsuen-hsuin (; 11 January 19109 April 2015), also known as T.H. Tsien, was a Chinese-American bibliographer, librarian, and sinologist who served as a professor of Chinese literature and library science at the University of Chicago, and wa ...

to study Chinese literature. He then went on to study at

, where his mentors included

Benjamin I. Schwartz Benjamin Isadore Schwartz (December 12, 1916 – November 14, 1999) was an American academic, political scientist, and sinologist who wrote on a wide range of topics in Chinese politics and intellectual history. He taught at Harvard his entire ...

and

John King Fairbank John King Fairbank (May 24, 1907 – September 14, 1991) was an American historian of China and United States–China relations. He taught at Harvard University from 1936 until his retirement in 1977. He is credited with building the field of Chi ...

. He received his

Doctor of Arts The Doctor of Arts (D.A.; occasionally D.Arts or Art.D. from the Latin ''artium doctor'') is a discipline-based terminal doctoral degree that was originally conceived and designed to be an alternative to the traditional research-based Doctor of ...

degree from Harvard University in 1970, majoring in history and East Asian languages. After graduating he taught at

Chung Chi College The Chung Chi College is one of the constituent colleges of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and one of the three original colleges that joined to form the CUHK in 1963. Founded in 1951 by representatives of Protestant churches in ...

of Chinese University of Hong Kong, Princeton University, Indiana University, University of Chicago, University of California, Los Angeles, and Harvard University. In 2002, Lee was elected Fellow of

Personal life

Lee was first wed to dancer Wang Xiaolan (), the daughter of

Hualing Nieh Engle Hualing Nieh Engle (born 11 January 1925), née Nieh Hua-ling (), is a Chinese novelist, fiction writer, and poet. She is a professor emerita at the University of Iowa. Early life and education Nieh Hua-ling was born on 11 January 1925 in Wuhan, ...

and poet

Paul Engle Paul Engle (October 12, 1908 – March 22, 1991), was an American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as co-founder of the International W ...

. After a turbulent divorce, he remarried in September 2000. Li Yuying (), his second wife, who was the former wife of Deng Wenzheng (). The couple was divorced, and Lee has since remarried.

Selected works

Books and edited volumes

* ''My Harvard University Years'' * ''The Romantic Generation of Modern Chinese Writers'' Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1973. * ''Voices from the Iron House: A Study of Lu Xun'' Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. * ''Shanghai Modern: The Flowering of a New Urban Culture in China, 1930–1945'' 1999, Harvard University Press, * ''City Between Worlds: My Hong Kong''. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. 2008 * ''An Intellectual History of Modern China'', Merle Goldman and Leo Ou-fan Lee, Ed, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2002. * ''Land Without Ghosts: Chinese Impressions of America From the Mid-Nineteenth Century to the Present''. translated and edited by R. David Arkush and Leo O. Lee. Berkeley : University of California Press,1989. * ''The Lyrical and the Epic: Studies of Modern Chinese Literature'', Author:

Jaroslav Průšek Jaroslav Průšek (1906–1980) was a Czech sinologist. He was considered as the founder of the Prague School of Sinology. He trained as an historian, with an interest in the history of ancient Greece, Byzantium and Roman Empire at Charles Unive ...

; edited by Leo Ou-fan Lee. Bloomington, Ind. : Indiana University Press, 1980. * ''The Appropriation of Cultural Capital: China's May Fourth Project'' Milena Doleželová-Velingerová, Oldrich Kral, and Graham Sanders Ed, Harvard University Asia Center, 2002. * ''Musings: Reading Hong Kong, China and the World'', Leo Lee Ou-fan, Muse Books/East Slope Publishing : Hong Kong, 2011.

Essays, articles, and chapters

References

External links

Leo Ou-fan Lee on Kafka in China
Goethe-Institut China, Online Magazine, October 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Leo Ou-fan 1942 births People from Taikang County National Taiwan University alumni Harvard University alumni Living people Chinese University of Hong Kong people Chinese literary critics Taiwanese people from Henan Members of Academia Sinica