Xinchang Li studied classical Chinese literature at Nanjing University, obtaining her bachelor of arts degree in 2019 with a dissertation on witchcraft and memories of disaster and illness in medieval China. Since 2019 she has been a PhD student at the Nanjing University school of arts majoring in classical Chinese literature. Xinchang’s current research project deals with Chinese agricultural literature between the tenth and twelfth centuries and the knowledge culture of the elite in the Song dynasty. More widely, her research interests include literati culture in the Song dynasty, the history of books in the ancient China, and the intersection between technical knowledge and literature knowledge. She is also working on a project looking at classical Sinographic literature in East Asia. Xinchang co-authored the "Ancient Japanese Annotation to Chinese Literary Works Series," 中国文集日本古注本丛刊 with her colleagues in Nanjing University.
At the MPIWG, Xinchang is a member of “Agriculture and Making of Sciences, 1100–1700” Working Group in Department III.
