Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Middle Period China, 600-1300 A Critical Anthology

Alexei Kamran Ditter (Ph.D., Princeton) is Professor of Chinese and Humanities at Reed College. He specializes in medieval Chinese literature, with research interests in entombed epitaphs, memory and commemoration, humor literature, and Tang dynasty narratives. In addition to publishing several articles, book chapters, and translations, he co-edited Tales from Tang China: Selections from the Taiping guangji (2017). He is currently completing a monograph titled Collaborative Remembering in 7th-10th century China and co-editing The Study of Medieval Chinese Entombed Epitaphs, an annotated anthology of translations.

Xiao Rao (Ph.D., Stanford) is currently Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include anecdotal literature, cultural studies of laughter, and the intersection between religion and literati culture in Middle Period China. He is working on a monograph titled Tales of Wit and Enlightenment: Laughter and Buddhism in Middle Period China. His recent publications include "Humor under the Guise of Chan: Stories of Su Shi and Encounter Dialogues" (2022) and "Anomalous Writing as Memories of Trauma: War and Women in Hong Mai's Yijian zhi" (2024).