Bio

Liz Evans Weber received her PhD in Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2015. She is currently an assistant professor of instruction in Chinese and research assistant professor at the University of Rochester, where she teaches a wide range of courses on Chinese literature and is currently developing a workshop course on Chinese-to-English literary translation. Her previous translations include the short story “Boundless Night” (Mangmang ye) by Yu Dafu (Renditions no. 95, spring 2021) and the novel New Story of the Stone (Xin shitou ji) by Wu Jianren (Columbia University Press, forthcoming summer 2025).  

Project Description

To support the translation of the novel Flower in a Sea of Retribution by Jin Songcen and Zeng Pu from Chinese. Co-authored by Jin (1874-1947), who wrote the first six chapters, and Zeng (1872-1935), who finished the remaining 29 chapters, Flower in a Sea of Retribution was originally serialized beginning in 1904 and is one of the most celebrated novels of the late Qing era. The novel follows a constellation of characters who crisscross one another's paths, deftly managing plotlines set in Shanghai, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Beijing, revealing through the varied perspectives of the different focal characters a range of nuanced commentaries on contemporary Qing China.