Yi Wang

Yi Wang is a PhD candidate in History at Nanjing University, China. Her research focuses on ancient Chinese mythology, legends, and folk traditions, with comparative interests in Hebrew and broader Western mythological traditions.

During her visiting fellowship in Harvard’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, she will study flood motifs in Chinese and Hebrew traditions and explore parallels between the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing) and Western mythology. She will also apply Western biblical textual criticism and form criticism to analyze the textual development of Yanhuang (Yan and Yellow Emperor) myths and legends. Drawing on comparative mythology, folklore studies, and cultural history, her work examines cross-cultural narrative patterns and tests a model of “literary stratification” in myth and legend. Her faculty sponsor at Harvard is Professor Julia Rhyder.