Liyao Chen (he/him/his)

Liyao Chen's research cuts across the borders of linguistics, writing studies, and philology. He is particularly interested in the borrowing and adaptation of the Chinese script in non-Chinese languages as well as the circulation and reception of Chinese-language texts in the East Asian "Sinographic Cosmopolis," the premodern cultural and literary community bound by the shared Sinographic script and a group of canonical texts.

His dissertation examines the relationship and interaction between Sinographic writing and the Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese languages from two opposite perspectives: (1). how these vernacular languages are encoded with Sinograms; (2). how texts written with Sinograms are decoded in these vernacular languages. The first perspective deals with the techniques of script adaptation and character use in these languages in general and in specific texts. The second perspective focuses on the glossing traditions aimed to facilitate the reading and understanding of Chinese-language texts in these languages. Overall, he hopes to present a panoramic view of the history of Sinographic writing in premodern East Asia.