Wang Yao

Wang Yao was born in April 1960 in Dongtai, Jiangsu. He is a professor at the School of Chinese Language and Literature of Soochow University, director of the university's academic committee, and a Changjiang Scholar Distinguished Professor appointed by the Ministry of Education. His research focuses on modern and contemporary Chinese literature and intellectual culture, as well as contemporary literary criticism. He has proposed concepts such as "transitional state" and "expanded liberated-area literature," and is the author of A History of Contemporary Chinese Prose and The 1980s as a Problem. He has also written the novel Ballads, for which he received the Seventh Lu Xun Literary Prize for theoretical criticism. His works often engage with cultural and social issues. The library holds two of his books, Common Customs and Common People (in the Expanded Essays on Culture series, continuation) and Peach Blossom Dock, categorized under culture and social fiction. His writing combines an academic perspective with narrative concern, and he has influence in both contemporary literary research and creative writing.