Michael Berry: Bridging Cultures Through Chinese Literature and Film
Michael Berry is a distinguished Professor of Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies and the Director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His work focuses on making contemporary Chinese culture more accessible to American audiences through scholarly research, translations of Chinese-language novels, and books on Chinese filmmakers. Berry's transnational approach addresses the richness and diversity of Chinese art and culture as it has manifested itself in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other Sinophone communities.
Academic and Professional Journey
After earning a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages & Cultures at Columbia University, Berry taught at UCSB for 13 years before joining UCLA in 2016. His areas of research include modern and contemporary Chinese literature, Chinese cinema, popular culture in modern China, and literary translation.
Contributions to Scholarship
Berry is the author of several influential books, including:
- Speaking in Images: Interviews with Contemporary Chinese Filmmakers (2006): A collection of dialogues with contemporary Chinese filmmakers, including Hou Hsiao-hsien, Zhang Yimou, Stanley Kwan, and Jia Zhangke.
- A History of Pain: Trauma in Modern Chinese Literature and Film (2008): Explores literary and cinematic representations of atrocity in twentieth-century China.
- Jia Zhangke’s Hometown Trilogy (2009): Offers extended analysis of the films Xiao Wu, Platform, and Unknown Pleasures.
- Boiling the Sea: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Memories of Shadows and Light (2014): A full-length interview book with award-winning film director Hou Hsiao-hsien (in Chinese).
- Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke (2021, 2022): A volume of conversations with Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke.
- Enter the Clowns: The Queer Cinema of Cui Zi'en (2022)
- Voiceover: Conversations with Sinophone Filmmakers (2024)
- Between the Lines: Conversations with Contemporary Chinese Writers (2025)
His most recent monograph, Translation, Disinformation, and Wuhan Diary (2022), explores the intersection of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, disinformation campaigns, and Fang Fang’s Wuhan Diary. He has also contributed to numerous books and periodicals, including The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas, A Companion to Chinese Cinema, Electric Shadows: A Century of Chinese Cinema, Columbia Companion of Modern Chinese Literature, Harvard New Literary History of Modern China, and The Chinese Cinema Book.
Literary Translations
Berry is an accomplished literary translator who has translated several important contemporary Chinese novels. To date, he has translated 11 Chinese-language works of fiction, three of which were published in early 2025. His translations include works by Yu Hua, Ye Zhaoyan, and Chang Ta-chun. His co-translation with Susan Chan Egan of Wang Anyi’s Song of Everlasting Sorrow was awarded Honorable Mention for the 2009 MLA Lois Roth Award for an outstanding translation of a literary work. In 2016, his translation of Yu Hua's To Live was selected for the NEA’s “The Big Read” program. His translation of Wu He’s (Dancing Crane) award winning novel Remains of Life (Yu sheng), a fascinating literary exploration of the 1930 Musha Incident, was honored with a NEA Translation Fellowship and shortlisted for the Best Translated Books Award (BTBA).
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Recent Translation Projects
Berry’s latest literary translations include the last novel in the “Hospital” trilogy by Chinese science fiction writer and journalist Han Song, plus two novels by the celebrated Chinese novelist Fang Fang, “Soft Burial” (Columbia, 2025) and “The Running Flame” (Columbia, 2025).
To get an idea of the pace at which Berry works, the first two novels in the Han trilogy were published in 2023 - “Hospital” in March, “Exorcism” in November - with the third, “Dead Souls,” published in January 2025 (all by Amazon Crossing). Not only is each book over 400 pages, Han writes in an extraordinarily difficult stream-of-consciousness style that is very challenging to translate. In a recent op-ed on artificial intelligence in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Berry said the three Han novels were one of the most difficult projects he had ever undertaken, in part because he chose material that could not be translated by an AI translation platform. “I wanted to translate something only a human would be capable of reworking in a new language… Arguably more experimental fiction than standard, the trilogy describes a dark world where everyone is a patient caught in a cycle of endless suffering. “Meanwhile, the entire city where these patients live - the entire world, in fact - is a massive hospital. More strange even than Han’s imaginary world or his style, however, may be the fact that the first “review” of the translation of “Dead Souls” to appear was the product of an AI bot.
Translation of Fang Fang's Works
In February of 2020, at the very start of the COVID-19 outbreak, Berry began to translate Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City by Wuhan-based writer Fang Fang. The book was one of the earliest accounts of the unfolding global crisis; while targeted by nationalist trolls, the diary was widely reviewed by international media outlets and honored with numerous awards. The publication of the English translation expanded the cyber campaign to include Berry as well.
Fang Fang continues to have pariah status in the official Chinese literary world of which she was long a respected member. Berry’s most recent translations build on his extensive body of work - scholarly cultural history, translations of Chinese-language novels and books on (and interviews with) Chinese filmmakers - all of which make contemporary Chinese culture more accessible to American audiences.
Following his translation of Chinese author Fang Fang's "Wuhan Diary" into English, Michael Berry has received an NEA fellowship that will support the translation of her novel, "A Soft Burial." The novel is considered one of her most important works.
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Berry noted, “News of the National Endowment for the Arts’ support of ‘A Soft Burial’ comes after more than 10 months of protracted attacks against Fang Fang. The NEA fellowship serves not only as a validation of the ‘Wuhan Diary’ translation project, but, more importantly, as a voice of support for a writer who has been the target of unprecedented online attacks.
Ian Johnson, himself the author of three books on China, reviewed Fang Fang’s “Soft Burial,” in The Atlantic in late March of this year. Published in China in 2016, the book explores the brutal land reform implemented by the Chinese Communist Party before and after it took power in 1949, ending in roughly 1953. In May, Chinese Canadian novelist Madeleine Thien published a review in The New York Review of Books of both “Soft Burial” and “The Running Flame,” the story of a poor rural woman prisoner awaiting death for murder after suffering terrible abuse (first published in Chinese in 2001).
Other Scholarly Activities and Recognition
Berry has received numerous accolades for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (2023) and two National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowships (2008, 2021). He has also received Honorable Mentions for the MLA Louis Roth Translation Prize (2009) and the Patrick D.
In addition to his academic writing, Berry extends the scope of his work through various media consultant positions, popular writings, and jury service. He has frequently been featured in various mainstream media outlets in the US and China, including NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the China Daily, and The People’s Daily. He is a contributor to the ChinaFile and his popular essays in Chinese have been published in the weekly Friday supplement of The Beijing News.
Berry also wrote about the Chinese political climate, and the uncanny parallels between the political tactics of Mao and Trump, in an April 2025 article in the online publication, ChinaFile.
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UCLA Center for Chinese Studies
As Director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies, Berry promotes cutting-edge scholarship in all disciplines, fosters a research and teaching environment free from political and financial pressures, and makes the results of scholarly investigations available for use beyond academic circles.
Founded in 1986, the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies has achieved distinction and an international reputation for excellence under the aegis of UCLA's International Institute. The academic force behind the Center's dynamism is its concentration on the core areas of research and teaching and its strong focus on developing outstanding graduate programs. During its first twenty years, the Center has recruited stellar faculty members, and graduate enrollment has increased to over 125 students campuswide. The program offers unusual strength in a wide variety of disciplines and fields, including Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, Literary Studies, Medicine, Political Science, and Sociology. In addition, UCLA offers extensive coursework in classical and modern Chinese language and literature. Its Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library holds 260,000 Chinese volumes and maintains subscriptions to over 1,500 Chinese journals and newspapers.
Selected Publications
- Jia Zhangke on Jia Zhangke (in Chinese). (Guangxi Normal University Press, 2021; Duke University Press, 2021).
- Boiling the Sea: Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Memories of Shadows and Light (in Chinese).
- “1939, October 15 Nanjing: Ah Long’s Lost Fictional Account of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre” and “April 1985: Of Roots and Earth” in Harvard New Literary History of Modern China, (Chinese edition).
- “Once Upon a Time in Shanghai” in Once Upon a Time in Shanghai. (Introduction to a photo book by Mark Parascandola. Daylight Books, 2019.
- “Response to ‘Taiwan Studies and the World’” in International Journal of Taiwan Studies.
- “From Fenyang to the World: Positioning Jia Zhangke” (Video Essay) in Jia Zhangke Box Set, Arrow Films, 2018.
- “Romancing Atrocity” in Southern Cultural Forum (Nanfang wentan), issue 6, 2016.
- “Taiwan Fiction in the Post-Martial Law Era” in the Columbia Companion of Modern Chinese Literature. Columbia University Press, 2016.
- “1939, October 15 Nanjing: Ah Long’s Lost Fictional Account of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre” and April 1985: Of Roots and Earth in Harvard New Literary History of Modern China, Harvard University Press, forthcoming, 2016.
- “Shooting the Enemy” and “Divided Lenses: Introduction” in Divided Lenses: Film and War Memory in East Asia University of Hawaii Press, 2016.
- “A Cultural Renaissance from the Ashes: Kenneth Pai on the Origins of Modern Literature,”“Shadows of a Lonely Flower: Kenneth Pai and Tsao Jui-yuan on Literary Adaptation” and “Crystal Boys, Desolate Men, and Ghosts: Kenneth Pai and the Development of Taiwan Queer Writing” in Modernism Revisited: Pai Hsien-yung and Taiwan Literary Modernism (Chongfan xiandai: Bai Xianyong, Xiandai wenxue, xiandaizhuyi). Rye Field, 2015.
- “Imperialist Limbos: Chen Chieh-jen’s Empire’s Borders and the Deconstruction of the American Dream” in National Jinan University Journal of Literature, 2015.
- “Hou Hsiao-hsien” and “Jia Zhangke” in Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography, Vol. 4 Berkshire Publishing/Oxford University Press, 2015.
- “Reflections on Chinese-English Literary Translation” in Chinese Literature in Dialogue, Writers Publishing, 2015.
- “Yunan 1968: Dreams of the Zhiqing Generation in Literature and Film” Wenxue, Fudan University Press, 2015.
- “Storm Under the Sun and the Hu Feng Incident Sixty Years Later” in Chengshi wenyi, 2015.
- “Censorship and Publishing in China”(A Chinafile Conversation), Chinafile/Asia Society, 2015.
- “Imagining the Past, Narrating History: Rereading Three Works of Chinese Historical Fiction from the 1990s” (Xiangxiang wangshi, xushu lishi: Chongdu Zhongguo jiuling niandai de sanben lishi xiaoshuo”) in Fiction, Canon and Modern Consciousness. Rye Field, 2015.
- More than twenty Chinese-language prose essays published weekly in the column “Random Notes on Film” for The Beijing News (Xin jing bao), June 2013-February 2014. (links to articles available online at Douban)
- “Xi Jinping’s Culture Wars”(A Chinafile Conversation). Sternberg Press and Para Site, 2014.
- “Taiwan Cinema” in Taiwan: Taiwan: The Bradt Travel Guide by Steven Crook, 2014.
- “The Pitfalls of Chinese-English Literary Translation” Zhongguo yishubao (Chinese Art), 2014.
- In Memory of C.T.Hsia, Caixin’s Gaige Zhongguo, 2014.
- “Can China’s Leading Indie Film Director Cross Over in America?” (A ChinaFile Conversation). Chinafile/Asia Society, 2013.
- “A Shark Called Wanda-Will Hollywood Swallow the Chinese Dream Whole? (A ChinaFile Conversation). Chinafile/Asia Society, 2013.
- “Chinese Cinema with Hollywood Characteristics, or How the Karate Kid Became a Chinese Film” in Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas, edited by Carlos Rojas and Eileen Chow, Oxford University Press, 2012.
- “The Challenge of Language: My Experience in Translation” in Global Forum on Translating Chinese Literature, Writers Publishing, 2012.
- “The Absent American: Figuring the United States in Chinese Cinema of the Reform Era” in The Blackwell Companion to Chinese Cinema, By Yingjin Zhang. Blackwell Publishing, 2012.
- Chinese-language entries on To Live, Yellow Earth, and Xiao Wu in The Golden Horse’s 100 Greatest Chinese Language Films, Taipei 2011.
- “Atrocity Exhibition: Why City of Life and Death’s treatment of the Nanjing Massacre ignited controversy in China” in Film Comment May/June 2011.
- “Immigration, Nationalism, and Suicide: Pai Hsien-yung and Pai Ching-jui’s Chinese Obsessions and American Dreams” in Journal of Taiwan Literature. National Taiwan Cheng-chih University Publishing, 2009 (Reprinted in in Pai Hsien-yung’s Art and Literature (Kuashiji de liuli: Bai Xianyong de wenxue yu yishu guojiyantaohui lunwenji), INK, 2009.
- “A Tale of Two Cities: Romance, Revenge, and Nostalgia in Two fin-de-siecle Novels by Ye Zhaoyan and Zhang Beihai” in Rethinking Chinese Popular Culture edited by Carlos Rojas and Eileen Chow (Routledge, 2009).
- “Reflections on Translating To Live” Chinese prose essay published online at Sina.com, Soven.com, etc. 2010.
- “China: 21st Century Tiger” Sight & Sound, British Film Institute September, 2006. ” Italian version,‘Internazionale’ October, 2006.
- “Translating China, Translating Taiwan, Translating Zhang Dachun” in Taiwan Literature and Translation edited by K.C. Tu (Center for Taiwan Studies, UCSB, 2006)
- “Literary Evidence and Historical Fictions: The Nanjing Massacre in Fiction and Film” Canadian Review of East Asian Studies Edmonton, 2006.
- “Revisiting Atrocity: The Nanjing Massacre on Film” (In Japanese) in China 21 24 (Aichi University Press, 2006).
- “Screening 228: From A City of Sadness to A March of Happiness” in Taiwan Imagined and its Reality edited by K.C. Tu (Center for Taiwan Studies, UCSB, 2005)
- Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, edited by Ned Davis (Routledge, 2003) Contributing writer (10 entries: He Qun, Liu Xiaoqing, Pan Hong, Rupture writers, Ye Zhaoyan, Wang Xiaobo, Shi Kang, Christopher Doyle, Wu Ziniu, and Wu He)
- “Cinematic Representations of the Rape of Nanjing” in East Asia: An International Quarterly 19, no.4 Winter 2001 (Transactions Periodicals Consortium). (Journal version), reprinted in Japanese War Atrocities: The Search for Justice. Peter Li, editor. January 2003 (Transaction Publishers).
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