En Li

Ph.D. - History
Washington University in St. Louis - 2015

M.A. - Chinese literature
Sun Yat-sen University, China - 2007

B.A. - Chinese Language & Literature
Sun Yat-sen University, China - 2005

Open-access syllabus, "History of Chinese Games and Gambling" 遊戲與賭博里的中國歷史, with THiS 時間社 (Theory, History, Society).  - Syllabus

Betting on the Civil Service Examinations: The Lottery in Late-Qing China (Harvard University Asia Center, 2023)  - book

“The Controversial Flag Dress: Collective Memory, Cyberspace, and Civil Society in A Rising China,” East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 5:1 (2019), 43-53  - article

"Betting Across Borders: A New Way to Read The Joy Luck Club and Other Immigrant Literature through the Window of Play." Recreation and Society in Africa, Asia and Latin America 7 (2019): 17-38 - article

“Censorship, Collecting, and Canonization: Perceptions of Qu Dajun (1630-1696) and His Works in Late Imperial China,” Frontiers of History in China, 12.3 (2016): 433-464  - article

Review of David Faure, Emperor and Ancestors: State and Lineage in South China. China Review International, 18.1 (2011): 50-52  - book review

“Beyond Dissidents: China in the Western Mind, from Hessler to Osnos,” review of Evan Osnos, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China. The Common Reader (November)  2016 - book review

“Enter the Dragon: China’s Educational System Can Enlighten Us, Even If It Is Note Always Worth Emulating,” review of Yong Zhao, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China has the Best (and Worst Education System in the World). The Common Reader (September) 2015 - book review

Assistant Professor in Modern East Asian History
University of Texas in Dallas [2023–Present]

Associate Professor, Asian and World History
Drake University [2023–2023]

Assistant Professor, Asian and World History
Drake University [2016–2023]

Asian Studies Minor

Interested in Minor in Asian Studies at UT-Dallas? Check it out!

Personal statement

I am a historian of late imperial and modern China, with a focus of social and cultural history of China and overseas Chinese communities. My first book, Betting on the Civil Service Examinations: The Lottery in Late-Qing China (Harvard University Asia Center, 2023), highlights the significance of weixing, a highly organized lottery game where money was bet on surnames that would pass the civil service exams, and reveals critical development with Chinese culture and society in the late nineteenth century. I have published peer-reviewed articles and book reviews in various journals such as Frontier of History in China, East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, Recreation and Society in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and The Common Reader.

My course offerings include the histories of China and East Asia, as well as Asian good books and good movies. Prior to arriving at UTD, I was a tenured professor at Drake University, and I was honored with the University’s Arts and Sciences “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” Award in 2021, and nominated for the Madelyn M. Levitt Mentor Award in 2022.

I am currently working on two new projects: one examining similar transnational cultural history to the first book and my experiences learning and dancing Hula in Taipei, Hong Kong, St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, and Des Moines in the past decade, but more expansively and through an investigation of the Chinese Hula dancers navigating between southern China and Southeast Asia between 1920s and 1940s; and the other one using a historical board game shengguantu 陞官圖 (or the Game of Promotion) as a pedagogical tool to learn about Chinese officialdom and rethink the meritocratic value associated with the civil service examinations and subsequent official appointments. 

In my spare time, I like to envision what to eat next in Dallas with my husband and children.  

Research awards

• Lebterthal-Roger Center for Chinese Studies (LRCCS) visiting scholar and Asia Library Travel Grant, for Chinese Dance Studies, University of Michigan, 2020-2022
• CIAC Small Grant Award, China and Inner Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies, 2015 
• Seminar Fellow, “Reading and Textual Production in Early Modern China,” Penn State Summer Institute in Asian Studies, 2014 
• Harvard-Yenching Library Travel Grant for Chinese Studies, Harvard-Yenching Library, 2014
• Global Scholarship Program for Research Excellence, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), 2012-2013
• Visiting Graduate Student Fellowship for Doctoral Research, Ministry of Education, Republic of China (Taipei), 2012-2013

Teaching awards

Nominated for the University's Madelyn M. Levitt Mentor Award, Drake University, 2022

The Arts and Sciences “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” Award, Drake University, 2021

Book talk

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) 香港中文大學, February 23, 2024, in Chinese (online)

Book talk

University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Center for Chinese Studies (UHM-CCS), January 31, 2024 (online)

Presenter, Asia and the World at AHA24

The annual meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA), "Shanghai Hula," January 6, 2024, San Francisco

Speaker, "Why we write: the freedom of shaping academic career through writing and publishing the first book"

Chinese Historians in the United States (CHUS), November 26, 2023 (online, flyer designed by Dr. Yi Ren)

Book talk

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, October 18, 2023 (Flyer designed by Dr. Xin Yu)