Christopher G. Rea (born 1977) is a literary and cultural historian, and Professor of Chinese in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia.
(2004) and Ph.D. (2008) in Modern Chinese Literature from the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures of Columbia University, where his advisor was David Der-wei Wang.
He was a Fulbright Scholar in Taipei, Taiwan (2004–2005), where he conducted research at the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy of the Academia Sinica.
[6][7] During the final two years of his doctorate, he was a visiting fellow at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Harvard University.
[8] He has also served as Associate Head of the Department of Asian Studies and as director of the UBC Centre for Chinese Research.
[10] Rea is a literary and cultural historian whose research focuses on the modern Chinese-speaking world.
Rea is known as a specialist in the literary, cinematic, and cultural history of the late Qing dynasty and the Republic of China, having written several well-received studies of the period, including The Age of Irreverence, which focuses on Chinese comic culture between the 1890s and 1930s.
[11][12][13][14][15] His books since the 2000s have focused on a variety of subjects, including Chinese cinema, comedy, celebrities, swindlers, cultural entrepreneurs, and the scholar-writers Qian Zhongshu and Yang Jiang.
He has edited and translated the works of authors such as Qian Zhongshu, Yang Jiang, Wen Yuan-ning, Xu Zhuodai 徐卓呆, Lee Kuo-Hsiu 李國修, Wang Chen-ho 王禎和, and Zhang Letian.
Da bujing de niandai: Jindai Zhongguo xin xiaoshi 大不敬的年代: 近代中國新笑史 (The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China).
China’s Literary Cosmopolitans: Qian Zhongshu, Yang Jiang, and the World of Letters.