CHENG Mengji

Course: The Forms of Folklore

Title: Assistant Professor, Researcher

Mengji Cheng is a scholar of Chinese folklore and folk literature at Peking University. She completed her B.A. in Chinese Literature at Peking University (2015) and later earned her Ph.D. in Chinese Literature from the same institution (2020), with joint training at the University of California, Berkeley (2018–2019).

Currently, Cheng serves as an Assistant Professor and Research Fellow in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University, where her research focuses on early Chinese concepts of supernatural phenomena, popular literature, and the visual culture of early modern China. Cheng’s research investigates the interwoven relationship between textual and visual forms in early Chinese society, exploring how these mediums articulated and reshaped worldviews, cultural identities, and collective memory across different social strata.

In her teaching, Cheng strives to introduce students to the complex cultural dynamics embedded within traditional Chinese literature and folklore. She is the primary instructor for the required undergraduate course Introduction to Folk Literature, which covers foundational topics in Chinese folklore and its various genres. Additionally, she is responsible for the graduate seminar Topics in Folk Imagery Studies, a course that examines the role of folk imagery and visual expressions in the evolution of popular narratives and belief systems in China.