East Asian Studies

Sara Vantournhout studied Sinology and Philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. Sara also studied at National Chengchi University in Taipei for one year, and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, also for one year. Her M.A. thesis in Sinology comprised a comparative study of 4th-5th century Chinese Buddhist thought, Lao-Zhuang philosophy and Neo-Taoism. Her current research interests are largely — though not exclusively — confined to early Chinese literature and philosophy.

Sara is particularly interested in the dialectical themes of memory and forgetting embedded within ancient Chinese literature, history and philosophy. She would like to examine more closely the various notions and perceptions of memory and forgetting in classical Chinese literature, as well as their (often implicit) role in early Chinese history and historiography.