• Chinesische Literatur und Kultur
• Chinesische Kulturgeschichte
• Medien und Internet in China
• Chinesische Populärkultur

• Chinesische Literatur und Kultur
• Chinesische Kulturgeschichte

• Medien und Internet in China
• Chinesische Populärkultur

PRESENT POSITIONS

2011-           Chair Professor (Ordinaria) of Chinese Culture and Society, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of St.Gallen

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

2017-2022    Head, Centre for Intercultural Competence, St.Gallen Institute for Management in Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore, SGI-HSG

2014-2015    Co-Director, Asia Research Centre, ARC-HSG, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland 

2007-2011    Associate Professor of Contemporary Chinese Studies (with professorial School leadership tasks and full tenure), and Research Director (2011), School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, UK 

2005-2006     University Lecturer (full tenure) of Contemporary Chinese Studies, Institute of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, UK

1998-2005    University Lecturer (full tenure) of Chinese Studies, Dept. of East Asian Studies, University of Durham, Durham, UK

1995-1998     University Lecturer of Chinese Studies, Dept. of East Asian Studies, University of Durham, Durham

1995            Part-time Lecturer in Classical Chinese, Oxford University, Institute for Chinese Studies

1994/1995    Randall-McIver Junior Research Fellow, Chinese Studies, Oxford University, St. Anne's College, Oxford

1994-98       Research Fellow (part-time), Project on Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples with Professor David Faure Oxford University, and Taiwan National University, Taipei, ROC

1994/95        Tutor (part-time) in modern Chinese literature, Sarah Lawrence College (US) at Oxford University, Oxford

1992-95       Tutor (part-time) in Classical Chinese and Early Modern Vernacular (Ming/Qing) Literature: Chinese Studies Honours School, for Wadham, Brasenose, Hertford, New, St. Anne's, St. Hilda's, St. John's, and Somerville Colleges, and the Institute for Chinese Studies, Oxford University

UNTERRICHTETE KURSE

Von Frau Professor Daria Berg unterrichtete Kurse

Kurse wurden in folgenden Programmen der Universität St.Gallen unterrichtet:

BA: Bachelor; 
MA: Master; 
PL: Public Lectures; 
IEMBA: International Executive MBA, Executive School, University of St.Gallen; 
SGI-HSG: St.Gallen Institute of Management in Asia, Singpore

Spring 2021 
“China under Xi Jinping: What does it Mean for China’s Economy and Society?” (with Guido Cozzi; MA)
“Integrative Portfolio Media” (BA, MA)

Herbst 2020 
“Modern China in History and Film” (BA)
“Integrative Portfolio Media” (with Veronica Barassi; BA, MA)
“Chinas Erster Kaiser” (PL) 

Frühling 2020 
“Transformation: A View from Media and Culture” (BA)
“China under Xi Jinping: What does it Mean for China’s Economy and Society?” (with Guido Cozzi; MA)
“Integrative Portfolio Media” (BA, MA) 

Herbst 2019 
“Pop Culture in China” (BA)
“Asia Compact: Competence in Intercultural Communication at SGI-HSG, Singapore” (MA)
“Singapore Field School in Intercultural Competence at SGI-HSG, Singapore” (DOK) 

Frühling 2019 
“China’s New Super Cities: A Cultural Journey” (BA)
“Women, Gender and Responsibility in China” (MA)
“Wealth Creation in China” (with Tomas Casas; MA) 

Herbst 2018 
“Modern China in History and Film” (BA)
“‘Superpower China’: Economic Imbalances & Cultural Shifts” (with Guido Cozzi;  MA)
“Asia Compact: Competence in Intercultural Communication at SGI-HSG, Singapore”  (MA) 

Frühling 2017 
“Pop Culture in China“ (BA)
“Youth Culture in China” (MA) “China Invents the Future” (with Tomas Casas, MA)
“Cultural Studies: Text and New Media in the Digital Age” (with Ulrich Schmid, DOK) 

Herbst 2016 
“China’s Transformation: A View from Media and Culture” (BA)
“China’s Avantgarde: Authors, Artists and Activists” (MA)
“‘Superpower China’: Economic Imbalances & Cultural Shift” (with Guido Cozzi, MA)
“The Organisation of Media, Globalising Markets and Transcultural Communication” (DOK) 

Frühling 2016 
“Modern China in History and Film” (BA)
“China’s Generation X and the City: Transcultural Communication in China’s Emerging World Cities” (MA)
“China Invents the Future: The Culture of Entrepreneurship, Technology and Social Networks” (with Tomas Casas, MA)
“The Organisation of Media, Globalising Markets and Transcultural Communication” (DOK)  

Herbst 2016
“China’s New Super Cities: A Cultural Journey” (BA)
“Women, Gender and Responsibility in China” (MA)
“‘Superpower China’: Economic Imbalances & Cultural Shifts” (with Guido Cozzi; MA)
“Chinas Neue Popkultur” (PL) 

Herbst 2015 
“China’s Transformation: A View from Media and Culture” (BA)
“China’s Avantgarde: Authors, Artists and Activists” (MA)
“‘Superpower China’: Economic Imbalances & Cultural Shifts” (with Guido Cozzi, MA)
“World Culture and Globalisation: China, New Media, Gender” (DOK Kolloquium)
“China vom Kaiser bis Mao: Geschichte und Film im 20. Jahrhundert, 1900-1976” (PL) 

Frühling 2015 
“Pop Culture in China” (BA)
“Youth Culture in China” (MA)
“The Chinese Dream: Twenty-First Century Superpower” (MA) 

Herbst 2014
“China’s New World Cities: A Cultural Journey” (BA)
“Women, Gender and Responsibility in China” (MA)
“‘Superpower China’: Economic Imbalances & Cultural Shifts “(with Guido Cozzi; MA)
“Chinas Neue Superstädte: Eine kulturelle Reise” (PL) 

Spring 2014 
“Film and Culture in China” (BA)
“Cultural Entrepreneurs and Creative Industries in China” (MA)
“Generation X and the Chinese City: Transcultural Communication in China’s Emerging World Cities” (MA)  

Herbst 2013 
“China’s Transformation: A View from Media and Culture” (BA)
“China’s Avantgarde: Authors, Artists and Activists” (MA)
“Transforming China: New Media and Culture between Consumerism and Censorship” (DOK)
“BRICs Transcultural Perspective: Business in China” (IEMBA; Executive School)
“Kurtisanen, Künstlerinnen und Cybervamps: Chinesische Frauen in Geschichte und Gegenwart” (PL)

Frühling 2013 
“Pop Culture in China” (BA)
“Youth Culture in China” (MA) 

Herbst 2012
“China’s Culture of Consumption” (BA)
“Gender and Responsibility in China” (MA)
“Künstler, Schriftsteller und Intellektuelle in China – Ai Weiwei und die chinesische Avantgarde” (“Artists, Writers and Intellectuals in China – Ai Weiwei and China’s Avantgarde”, PL)  

Frühling 2012 
“Cinema in China” (BA)
“Entrepreneurialism in Chinese Culture” (MA) 

Herbst 2011 
“Media and Culture in a Globalising China” (BA)
“Digital Dissent: Internet Authors, Artists and Activists in Twenty-first Century China” (MA)

Prof. Daria Berg and Dr Giorgio Strafella conducted four main research projects in 2020. 

1.     The Avant-Garde in Post-Socialist China, 1978-2018: The Art of Transculturality

Berg and Strafella have conducted a major research project on transculturality in contemporary Chinese art and literature. It resulted in the publication of a co-edited volume on avantgarde art and literature in today’s China. The book (under contract with Routledge) includes contributions by scholars from China, Europe and the United States and also essays on Chinese art by Swiss art collector and patron of the arts Uli Sigg. 

2.     Cultural Entrepreneurs and Creative Industries in China

Berg and Strafella have also conducted a major research project on cultural entrepreneurship and creative industries in China. Following the successful organisation of the workshop “New Media, Creative Industries and Cultural Entrepreneurs in China” at the University of St.Gallen, Berg and Strafella are co-editing a special section entitled “Cultural Entrepreneurs in China’s New Mediascape” for an international journal. It offers contributions by international scholars of Chinese culture, society, literature and intellectual history on the role of the new media and cultural industries in today’s China, focusing on the figure of the cultural entrepreneur and their influence on people’s values and tastes. The articles examine cultural entrepreneurship active in literary creation, publication, traditional and online broadcasting, cinema and social media. Contributors to the special section include Marco Fumian (‘Orientale’ University of Naples, Italy), Stephanie Hemelryk Donald (Monash University Malaysia), Helena Wu (University of Zurich, Switzerland) and Yi Zheng (University of New South Wales, Australia). 

3.     Urban Landscapes and Utopia


A research project on urban culture and utopia in Chinese art and literature is also being conducted. Findings from this project were presented at international conferences including the European Association of Chinese Studies and the International Convention of Asia Scholars. The output is a book chapter by Berg and Strafella, “Ruins in the Post-Human Wilderness: Future Landscapes from the Intellectual Crisis of the 1990s to Cao Fei” for the volume Whose Utopia: Sinophone Reimaginations of the Future, edited by Jessica Imbach, Justyna Jaguscik and Andrea Riemenschnitter. 

4.     Liberalism in China 

Finally, Berg and Strafella carried out a research project on the history of liberalism in China from the early modern era (ca. 1600) until today. The output of this project is a co-authored chapter in a handbook on global liberalism edited by Michael Festl (University of St.Gallen).     

2020: University of St.Gallen, Teaching Reduction for Research
2019: Swiss Asian Society, Grant for Workshop Organisatuion: "China's New Media and Cultural Entrepreneurs"
2018: University of St.Gallen, Teaching Reduction for Research
2016: University of St.Gallen, Teaching Reduction for Research
2015: ICAS Book Prize Specialist Publication Accolade for "Women and the Literary World in Early Modern China"
2015: The Eduard B. Vermeer Prize for the Best Article, China Information
2014-2016: Swiss National Science Foundation Research Grant
2015-2016: Chiang Ching-kuo Lecture Series (St.Gallen & Leiden)
2014: University of St.Gallen, Teaching Reduction for Research
2012-2013: University of St.Gallen, Research Committee's Basic Research Fund
2010: University of Nottingham, Learning & Teaching Development Projects
2005-2011: University of Nottingham, Research Grants, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies
2007-2012: Chinese Ministry of Education Grant for a Confucius Institute at the University of Nottingham
2008: Association for Asian Studies, US Panel Organizer Grant
2006: University of Nottingham Research Grant for Chinese cultural studies2006: Oxford University, Institute of Chinese Studies, Publication Grant 
2002-2003: The Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship
2002: British Academy Travel Grant
2002: British Academy Grant
2002: Universities’ China Committee, London Grant
2002: Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Grant
2002: Durham University, Contemporary China Centre Grant
1997: Shung Ye Foundation Grant
1997: Universities’ China Committee London Grant
1997: Durham University Special Staff Travel Fund
1996: Shung Ye Foundation Grant
1996: Durham University Special Staff Travel Fund
1996: Durham University Department of East Asian Studies Research Fund
1994-1996: Shung Ye Foundation, Taiwan, Grant
1992-1994: German National Scholarship Foundation
1990-1992: Rotary Foundation, Rotary International, Japan Programme Scholarship
1990: St. Hugh's College Oxford University Award
1989-1990: British Academy Major State Studentship
1989-1990: St. Hugh's College Oxford University Cannon Graduate Scholarship
1989: The Oxford Society Award
1987-1990: German National Scholarship Foundation
1986: Sun Yat-sen Memorial Foundation Prize
1985-1986: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Scholarship
1983: Baccalaureate (Abitur) Prize for Outstanding Result

EINLADUNGEN FÜR WISSENSCHAFTLICHE VORTRÄGE

2021/2020

Daria Berg & Giorgio Strafella, Book Presentation : "The Avant-Garde in Postsocialist China, 1978-2018: The Art of Transculturality" Edited by Daria Berg and Giorgio Strafella, 12th International Convention of Asia Scolars (ICAS 12)  Kyoto 24-28 August 2021

Strafella, Giorgio & Berg, Daria: “Delegated Digital Art: Victor Wong's Tech-ink Paintings and Chen Qiufan’s ‘State of Trance’” 12th International Convention of Asia Scolars (ICAS 12)  Kyoto 24-28 August 2021

Strafella, Giorgio & Berg, Daria: “Borders, Marginality, and the Contemporary: Yang Zhichao's Art at the Turn of the 21st Century”, 23nd Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies. University of Leipzig, Germany. 24-28 August 2021. Due to pandemic, moved to 2021.

Berg, Daria & Strafella, Giorgio: Celebrity in Post-Socialist China as Transmedia Storytelling, 12th International Convention of Asia Scolars (ICAS 12)  Kyoto 24-28 August 2021

Daria Berg & Giorgio Strafella. “China’s New Media Superstars.” 23nd Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies. University of Leipzig, Germany. 24-28 August 2021. Due to pandemic, moved to 2021.

Daria Berg & Giorgio Strafella, “Rising from the Margins: Women Superstars in Superpower China”. Conference “China From The Margins: New Narratives Of The Past And Present”, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Department of China Studies, Suzhou (PRC), 10-11 April 2020. Due to pandemic, moved to 2021.

2019 

Berg, Daria. “Verführung im Vergnügungsviertel: Die talentierte Frau in Kunst und Literatur im China der Kaiserzeit.” Invited Talk at the International Lyceum Club, St. Gallen, 24 November 2019.

Strafella, Giorgio & Berg, Daria. “Performance Art on the China/West Border: YanZhichao’s Jiayu Pass.” Annual Conference on Asian Studies (ACAS), Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic, 22-23 November 2019.

Strafella, Giorgio & Berg, Daria. “Post-Human Wilderness: Dystopian Landscapes in China from the Intellectual Crisis of the 1990s to Cao Fei.” The 11th International Convention of Asia Scholars - ICAS 11. - Leiden, The Netherlands. 19 July 2019.

Berg, Daria & Strafella, Giorgio. “New Digital Media and Changing Gender Roles: The Rise of Women Cultural Entrepreneurs in a Globalising China.” The 11th International Convention of Asia Scholars - ICAS 11. - Leiden, The Netherlands. 17 July 2019.

Berg, Daria & Strafella, Giorgio. “Kulturunternehmer und digitale Medien in China.” Konfuzius-Institut Leipzig, 4 February 2019.

2018 

Berg, Daria. “Superstars in der Supermacht China: Eine Schriftstellerin und eine Künstlerin im Spannungsfeld von Staat und Konsumkultur.” Invited Talk at the International Lyceum Club, St. Gallen, 24 November 2019.

Berg, Daria & Strafella, Giorgio. “Ruins in the Post-Humanist Wilderness.” Conference on “Residual Futures: Rethinking Utopianism in Modern China.” University of Zurich & Villa Garbald, Castasegna. 5 October 2018.

Berg, Daria & Strafella, Giorgio. “The Rise of Women Cultural Entrepreneurs in China’s Mediasphere.” 22nd Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies. University of Glasgow, UK. 30 August 2018.

Strafella, Giorgio & Daria Berg. “Cao Fei: The Nightmares of China’s Rejuvenation.” 22nd Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies. University of Glasgow, UK, 29 August 2018.Strafella, Giorgio & Daria Berg. “Celebrità e nuovi media: un'esplorazione delle strategie transmediali.” Invited lecture at University of Milan, 25 May 2018.

Berg, Daria & Strafella, Giorgio. “China’s New Cultural Entrepreneurs and the Digital Media.” Invited lecture at University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, 16 April 2018.

Berg, Daria & Giorgio Strafella. “China's New Cultural Entrepreneurs and the Digital Media”. Invited lecture at University of Milan, Italy. 28 March 2018.

2017 

Berg, Daria & Giorgio Strafella. “Stars mit dem & gegen das System: Cao Fei”. Freiburger China Gespräche, Freiburg, 6 December 2017.

Strafella, Giorgio & Daria Berg. “The Internet, Public Opinion and Online Culture in 21st Century China.” Invited lecture at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea.

Strafella, Giorgio. “Il dibattito intellettuale in Cina nell'era delle riforme.” Contribution to a seminar at Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.

Berg, Daria & Giorgio Strafella. “Women Writers as Cultural Entrepreneurs”. Workshop on “Popular Literature in Contemporary China: Production, diffusion and genres”, University of Genève, Genève, Switzerland, 17 June 2017.

Berg, Daria & Giorgio Strafella. “The Transmedia and Transcultural Hyperrealism of Ai Weiwei’s Digital Communication.” Workshop ‘Landscapes or Realism’. SOAS, University of London, February.

Berg, Daria. “Amazon, Artist and Activist: A Pioneering Courtesan Poet and Painter in late Ming China”. University of Würzburg, Germany, 18 January 2017.

2016 

Strafella, Giorgio & Daria Berg. “Zhou Xiaoping: A Blogger for China’s Renaissance?” 21th Conference of the European Association Conference of Chinese Studies, St. Petersburg, 24 August 2016.

Berg, Daria & Giorgio Strafella. “China’s New Businesswomen: Authors, Bloggers and Celebrities as Cultural Entrepreneurs in Post-Deng China.” XXIst European Association for Chinese Studies Bienniale Conference, St Petersburg, Russia, 23-28 August 2016.

Berg, Daria. “China’s New Cultural Entrepreneurs 2.0: Authors, Bloggers, Consumption Celebrities”. University of Genève, Genève, Switzerland, 10 May 2016.

Berg, Daria & Rui Kunze. “Chinese Woman in New York City: Transcultural Travel and Postsocialist Cosmopolitanism in Twenty-first Century China.” International interdisciplinary conference “People and Cultures in Motion: Environment, Space and the Humanities.” Chengchi University, Taipei, Republic of China, 13 March 2016.

Berg, Daria. “Cyberbabe, Cybervamp, Consumption Celebrity: Anni Baobei and the Web-based Spectacle of Female Self-Fashioning in Twenty-first Century China”. CCK Lecture Series, St Gallen and Leiden University, Leiden, 11 March 2016.

2015 

Strafella, Giorgio & Daria Berg. “Narrating and Critiquing the Avant-Garde in Contemporary China.” Part I of two invited lectures at Fudan University, July 2015.

Strafella, Giorgio & Daria Berg. 2015. “Narrating and Critiquing the Avant-Garde in Contemporary China.” Part II of two invited lectures at Fudan University, July 2015.

2014 

Berg, Daria, Wei-hsin Lin & Giorgio Strafella. “Micro/Blogs and Glocalisation: Transcultural Communication in China’s New Mediasphere.” “China’s Media Go Global” International Conference, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2-3 September 2014.

Berg, Daria & Giorgio Strafella. “Creating a New Chinese Cyber-Celebrity: A Cultural Analysis of Han Han’s Blog as Web-based Media Spectacle.” XXth European Association for Chinese Studies Bienniale Conference, Braga and Coimbra, Portugal, 24 July 2014.

2013 

Berg, Daria. “Blogging China: Han Han and the Art of Trans/cultural Communication 2.0 in Postsocialist China’s Marketplace”. KIM (Cultures, Institutions, Markets) Lecture, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of St. Gallen, 21 October 2013.

Berg, Daria. “Transcultural Flows in Postsocialist China: The Utopian Team and the Art of Transcultural Travel”. Panel on “Transcultural Communication in a Globalizing China”. Conference “The Future of Content is Context”, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of St. Gallen, 25/26 April 2013.

Berg, Daria. “Auf der Erfolgsleiter zu den Wolken: Visionen von Examenskandidatinnen in Romanen (xiaoshuo) der späten Kaiserzeit.” Symposium on the Chinese Novel (xiaoshuo), Maerz 2013 “Alltagskultur in chinesischen Romanen”. University of Munich, Germany, 24 March 2013.

2012 

Berg, Daria. “Chinese Dreams: Weaving Red Threads of Communication”. Inaugural Lecture. University of St.Gallen, Switzerland, 9 October