Staff profile

Weiyu (Weilla) is a PhD candidate in Chinese Studies at the School of Modern Languages and Culture, Durham University. She received her BA in Political Science at Bryn Mawr College, US. and MSc in International Public Policy at University College London. Her PhD project, titled “The ‘Chinese vs. Western’ Cultural Debate: Visions Towards Modernity, 1915-1921”, looks into the cultural debate sparked in early 20th century China between two groups of intellectuals and how their articulations of key concepts incorporating two constellations of values from modern West and traditional China imply on China’s path towards modernity. Weiyu was elected a Postgraduate Member of the Royal Historical Society in February 2025.

• Modern Chinese Intellectual History, the Cultural Perspective of Modernity, Contemporary Understandings on Confucianism and Chinese Classical Readings