Jing Tsu

Jing Tsu is a scholar of East Asian literature and culture, currently serving as a Professor of East Asian Languages & Literatures and Comparative Literature at Yale University. Her research focuses on the intersection of language, technology, and global history, with a particular emphasis on China and East Asia.

Tsu's work explores the ways in which language technologies, such as writing systems and information processing technologies, have shaped cultural production, political power, and globalization. Her scholarship often challenges conventional narratives about the relationship between technology and society, arguing that these technologies are not neutral tools but rather deeply embedded in cultural and historical contexts.

She is the author of several notable books, including Failure, Nationalism, and Literature: The Making of Modern Chinese Identity, 1895-1937 (1995), Writing Nation: Chinese Nationalism and Cultural Production in the 1920s and 1930s (2010), and Kingdom of Characters: A New History of China's Written Language (2022). Kingdom of Characters examines the history of the Chinese writing system and its impact on Chinese identity and the nation's modernization efforts.

Tsu has received numerous awards and fellowships for her scholarship, solidifying her position as a leading voice in the fields of East Asian studies, comparative literature, and the history of technology. She has also contributed to public discourse on issues related to language, technology, and culture.