Previously, Dr. Yiyi Chen Ph.D. '00 served as Director of the Institute for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Peking University. Chen was one of the leading Biblical scholars in China and a pioneer in the field of Middle Eastern Peace Studies at Shanghai Jiaotong University. Chen was also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sino-Western Communications. He has been a visiting professor at the Graduate Theological Union (2008-2010) and the University of California at Berkeley (2006-2007). He also served as a Peer-review College Member of England’s Arts and Humanities Research Council. Chen is the author of several books, among them, the Chinese college standard textbook Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Peking University Press, 2011) and Textual and Archaeological Background of the Hebrew Bible (Kunlun Press, 2006). His Chinese translation of A. B. Yehoshua’s Hebrew novel Three Days and a Child was awarded the annual prize by Israel’s Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature in 1994. Chen headed several Chinese government commissioned projects related to Jewish Studies, the Bible, Israel and the Middle East. He led the only Chinese think tank initiative to publish a Middle East Peace Index for the Chinese government.
On NES and Cornell Dr. Chen writes: "NES, within a giant Cornell, is so very unique in that it is one of the so many subjects that not many typical US universities (only a handful comprehensive universities come to mind) can afford to have, it is really an intellectual luxury for all the students who are lucky enough to attend Cornell and find NES during their years in Cornell. The students who discovered NES should cherish this special treat of Cornell and take advantage of it while they still can.”
Dr. Chen left academia in 2016 to pursue other opportunities and now lives with his family in California.
