Zhengguo Kang

Zhengguo Kang is the author of a highly praised memoir about life during the Cultural Revolution, “Confessions: An Innocent Life in Communist China” (trans by Susan Wilf, published by Norton, 2007). The renowned critic William Grimes called Kang’s book, “A mesmerizing read…. Like a character in a picaresque novel, Mr. Kang stumbles from one misadventure to the next … Mr. Kang serves as an extraordinary guide through an extraordinary period of Chinese history.” Kang’s other publications, which have yet to be translated into English, include “Lu Meng” (“Deer Dreams,” 1999), “Feminism and Literature” (1994), and “A Study of Classical Chinese Poetry on Women and by Women” (1988). A poet and scholar of classical Chinese literature, Kang is now Senior Lector Emeritus in Chinese. He first came to Yale to teach in 1994 and retired in 2012. He has been a fellow at Davenport College since 1995.