Search
New!
Victor H. Mair: A Celebration Neil Schmid and Diana Shuheng Zhang

Victor H. Mair: A Celebration by Neil Schmid and Diana Shuheng Zhang

Hundreds, if not the thousands, of people have benefited from the kindness of Professor Victor Mair. Stories proliferate of him coming to the aid of others. Just a fraction of these stories of his generosity are being published in Victor H. Mair: A Celebration. Together, the 38 essays show how Victor H. Mair has served as a selfless pioneer across disciplines, opening doors to all interested and providing a model of mentorship.

Purchase Options

E-books coming soon.
E-books for short-term access coming soon.
Hardcover not available.
Paperback Options

Standard Edition

Price $ 49.99
About Standard Paperback Edition
  • Laminated, velvet-matte cover.
  • 60# beige or white paper.
  • grading Convenient, durable, affordable.
  • For libraries, resellers, individuals.
  • Brand new condition.

Value Edition

Price $ 44.99
About Value Paperback Edition
  • Non-laminated, silk-touch cover.
  • 50# white paper.
  • grading Convenient, lightweight, affordable.
  • For individuals. Not for resale.
  • Brand new condition.
  • Formats Paperback
  • Paperback ISBN 9781621966760
  • Pages 290
  • Date March 2023
  • Size 6 x 9 in or 229 x 152 mm

*Includes B&W images.

Hundreds, if not the thousands, of people have benefited from the kindness of Professor Victor Mair. Stories proliferate of him coming to the aid of others. Just a fraction of these stories of his generosity have been published in Victor H. Mair: A Celebration in honor of his eightieth birthday.

In this special book of tributes, students, colleagues, and friends reflect, in reminiscences that range from touching to hilarious, on how Professor Mair has impacted their lives. This collection includes essays from luminaries such as Daniel Boucher, Ronald Egan, Valerie Hansen, Harold Roth, Haun Saussy, Tansen Sen, and more.

Together, the 38 essays show how Victor H. Mair has served as a selfless pioneer across disciplines, opening doors to all interested and providing a model of mentorship. This book is a most inspiring must-read of testimonials about how one incredible scholar has changed the lives of so many for the better.

From the introduction by Neil Schmid:

"Few people would ever imagine that behind the vast piles of overflowing books and papers in a small office on the eighth floor of Williams Hall on the University of Pennsylvania campus lies the epicenter of a complex network spanning immense reaches of space and time. That vast web, like the books and papers, has rapidly expanded over the decades, ever since Victor H. Mair's arrival on Penn's campus in 1979, his home now for more than forty years. Victor's boundless curiosity, indefatigable energy, and proficient talents at making connections among disparate phenomena has resulted in hundreds of publications, numerous cooperative projects, and most importantly a rich network of students, colleagues, and friends. His research and interests span domains as far afield as Proto-Indo European linguistics, twentieth-century Chinese literature, and Warring States archaeology, the diversity of areas equally matched with fellow-minded colleagues and conversation partners around the world."

Neil Schmid (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is Research Professor at the Dunhuang Academy.

Diana Shuheng Zhang is a PhD candidate in the Department of South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

List of Figures

Introduction: Victor H. Mair at 80 (Neil Schmid)

1: From China to the Silk Roads with Victor Mair (Vito S. Acosta)

2: Chinese Folk and Popular Literature (Mark Bender)

3: The Restless Spirit of Research (Rostislav Berezkin)

4: Traveling with Victor H. Mair on the Silk Route (Daniel Boucher)

5: On the Way to Xinjiang (Claudia Chang)

6: A Breaker of Borders (Jinhua Chen)

7: The Many Ways Of Knowing (Sara de Rose)

8: Memorable Words (Ronald Egan)

9: A Scholar for All Seasons (Peter B. Golden)

10: An Intellectual Connoisseur (Zihan Guo)

11: Victor Mair—Mentor, Colleague, Friend (William C. Hannas)

12: A Life-Altering Graduate Seminar (Valerie Hansen)

13: The True History of Tea (Erling Hoh)

14: “Best Wishes” (Judith A. Lerner)

15: Mummy Chasing with Victor Mair (J. P. Mallory)

16: A Long Journey Back in Time with Victor (Patrick E. McGovern)

17: How Victor Mair and I Wrote “The Sanskrit Origins of Recent Style Prosody” (Tsu-Lin Mei)

18: How Many Victor Mairs Are There? (David Moser)

19: Travels with Victor (William H. Nienhauser, Jr.)

20: The Man with Insatiable Curiosity (S. Robert Ramsey)

21: Victor Mair, Publisher and Runner (Paula Roberts)

22: The Contemplative Victor Mair (Harold Roth)

23: Confucius in Philadelphia (Lilla Russell-Smith)

24: Bring Out Your Dead (Haun Saussy)

25: Creating Affinities (Neil Schmid)

26: From Beijing to Penn and Beyond (Tansen Sen)

27: A Sino-Platonic Friendship (Edward L. Shaughnessy)

28: How to Nourish Life (Mark Swofford)

29: The Ent (Toni Tan)

30: Unapologetic Philology (Nicholas J. Tursi)

31: Remembering Great Teachers (Bryan W. Van Norden)

32: From the Fringes (Julie Lee Wei)

33: Victor Mair, My Intellectual Father (Sophie Ling-chia Wei)

34: From Beijing to Philadelphia (Jidong Yang)

35: A Laowai Who Owed Me in a Previous Life (Taishan Yu)

36: The Spirit of the Snail (Diana Shuheng Zhang)

37: The Tarim Bond (He Zhang)

38: Mei Xiansheng’s Car (Qingzhi Zhu)

Selected Bibliography of Victor H. Mair

Cambria Sinophone World Series

Special Thanks

  • 2023 Cambria Press

Innovative publisher of the world's top scholars

This website makes limited use of cookies.

View our cookies and privacy policy.