Selina Lai-Henderson

Selina Lai-Henderson, Ph.D.

Welcome to my homepage! On this site, you will find out about my research and teaching interests, forthcoming events (both mine and great stuff at Duke Kunshan), and links related to American studies, literature, and history.

My research and teaching are at the heart of transnational American Studies and literary history. My major intellectual theme revolves around locating works of American literature in twentieth-century China and in translation. I obtained an M.A. from Heidelberg University, Germany, was a Fulbright at Stanford University, and hold a Ph.D. from Hong Kong University.

I am on the advisory board of the Humanities Research Centre (co-run by Duke and Duke Kunshan Universities), and co-direct Freedom Lab at DKU. In addition to being a Senior Associate Managing Editor for Journal of Transnational American Studies, I am on the Editorial Board of Global Nineteenth-Century Studies. I currently serve as Co-Chair of the International Committee at the American Studies Association.

* More info available on my Scholars@Duke and CV

News and Events

My book, Mark Twain in China, was published by Stanford University Press in 2015.

184pp. Cloth ISBN: 9780804789646

"A fresh contribution to Mark Twain studies and to American literary studies, as well as to transnational American Studies, and cultural studies more broadly, this groundbreaking book will pave the way for future investigations of the many approaches that the author opens up for us."

—Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Stanford University

"Deftly framed and convincing, Lai-Henderson's study helps us to understand this interactive nexus across the American/Chinese literary republic in lucidly elaborated biographical detail, textual exemplification, and nationalglobal scope."

—Rob Wilson, UC Santa Cruz

"Lai-Henderson marshals the scholarship of translation studies to excellent effect, building both a historical and theoretical understanding of many of the Chinese editions of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The careful treatment of the language and the characterization of both Huck and Jim are salient and compelling."

—Gregg Camfield, UC Merced

Articles / reviews related to Mark Twain in China:

Los Angeles Review of Books (Aug 2015): "The Odd Couple: On Political Dissent and the Remarkable Similarities Between Mark Twain and Yu Hua"—Jeffrey Wasserstrom

CHOICE (vol 53, 1): "Lai-Henderson examines Twain's treatment of Chinese immigrants in the US and his response to US imperialist intervention in China. Closing chapters outline the publication history of Twain in China and the problematic intercultural translation of Huckleberry Finn. A useful epilogue illuminates modern Chinese history, Chinese internal policies, and Chinese interest in the US...Pointing to Twain's declaration at the time of the Boxer Rebellion, "I am a Boxer," Lai-Henderson fills out the picture of Twain's anti-missionary position, adding helpfully to Susan Harris's discussion of the Philippines in God's Arbiters. This worthwhile study will appeal primarliy to specialists."—David E. Sloane (Sep 2015)

American Literature (Volume 88, Number 2, June 2016): "Lai-Henderson provides original information on how Twain eventually traveled to China as an authorial presence in his texts, discussing numerous nineteenth- and twentieth-century translations and their further dissemination into variants suited to disparate Chinese political cultures, including those of the People's Republic, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. (An added gift here is a fascinating final chapter on translation problems with American dialect.)"—Philip Beidler