Sujane Wu, Ph.D

A Poem titled "Qiang Zhongzi" from the Book of Songs (ca. 600 B.C.). Tune composed by Ziyun Wei of Taiwan; recited and sung by Sujane Wu.

Sujane Wu teaches courses on traditional Chinese literature, culture, and language (both classical and modern).  She teaches all levels of modern Chinese language, and her literature and culture courses include “The Culture of the Lyric in Traditional China” (EAL 231), “Chinese Poetry and the Other Arts” (EAL 237), and a seminar on the most famous  Chinese vernacular novel, Dream of the Red Chamber [Honglou meng ] (EAL 360).  Her research focuses primarily on the medieval Chinese poetry.  She is currently working on a book manuscript, tentatively entitled Exchange of Heart: Poetic Correspondence and Self-Expression in Early Medieval China.  

For over two decades, Sujane Wu has been studying, performing, and writing extensively about traditional Chinese poetry.  One of Wu’s primary scholarly interests has been to reconstruct poems in musical performance, which she has come to see as necessary to a full appreciation of the poems themselves as well as the people who wrote and who listened to them.  She has given musical performance of Chinese poetry in the U.S. as well as in Taiwan.  In March 2007, she presented a performance for a Khan Liberal Arts Institute project titled Narrative: Identity, in which she participated as a faculty fellow.  In March 2009, she also gave another performance on the theme of "solitude" in Chinese poetry for the Poetry Center of Smith College.  

Sujane Wu earned her B.A from Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan, and her M.A. and Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Office: Wright Hall 116
Phone: 413-585-3707
Email: swu@smith.edu