Dr Chunfeng Zhang

Dr Chunfeng Zhang is a visiting Yip Fellow at Magdalene.

Chunfeng Zhang is an Associate Professor at the Center for the Study and Application of Chinese Characters, East China Normal University, Shanghai, and a Yip Visiting Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Her research focuses on Naxi Dongba manuscripts and writing, Chinese writing systems, manuscript studies, and the ways in which writing systems adapt across languages and cultural contexts.

Much of her work is based on manuscript collections held in China, Europe, and North America. She has conducted research on the Naxi Dongba manuscripts held by the Harvard-Yenching Institute and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, with particular interests in manuscript classification, colophons, scribal practices, provenance, and manuscript circulation.

Her recent research also examines the use of Dongba writing to represent Chinese and the interaction between different writing traditions in Southwest China. More broadly, she is interested in how writing systems change when they are adapted for new languages, textual genres, and social purposes.

She is also Managing Editor of the Journal of Chinese Writing Systems.

Research Interest

• Naxi and Dongba studies
• Dongba manuscripts
• Writing systems
• Chinese writing systems
• Manuscript studies
• Scribal practices and colophons
• Manuscript provenance and circulation
• Multilingual and multiscript writing
• Adaptation of writing systems across languages
• History of writing
• Digital preservation of endangered scripts

Career / Research Highlights

Conducted systematic surveys of Naxi manuscript collections in China and Europe, tracing their provenance, textual relationships, and circulation across different collections.

Professional Affiliations

Managing Editor, Journal of Chinese Writing Systems