Meimei Zhang
Asian Languages and Cultures

Meimei Zhang is a PhD student in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures of UCLA. She is interested in the relationship between music and poetry in ancient China, especially the role that the instrument qin (琴) played in classical Chinese poetry. Since many of the qin songs she knew originated in poetry, and much qin music theory is closely related to poetics, Meimei began investigating music scores as well as the poetic elements preserved in texts about qin. By focusing on the materiality of the musical manuscripts, she hopes to shed light not only on the relationship between musical and poetic theories, but also on the production, circulation, preservation, and interpretation of poetry from the perspective of the qin.