Nathan Faries has taught at Bates since 2014 and has been a student of Chinese language and culture since 1997. He taught at Peking University in the late ’90s and early 2000s while completing his PhD in Comparative Literature. He also studied Classical Chinese at Middlebury and language pedagogy at The Ohio State University. Dr. Faries has led study trips to Beijing, Xi’an, and Hong Kong for students at Bates and other American schools.

Dr. Faries teaches courses in Chinese language, modern and contemporary Chinese literature, and Chinese science fiction, and he has also taught first-year seminars comparing Chinese and American conceptions of diversity. Dr. Faries wrote his dissertation on the importance of narrative elements and frameworks in Chinese religious identity and on US-China cross-cultural perceptions. His book on these issues, The “Inscrutably Chinese” Church, was published in 2010. He has also published essays on Su Xuelin, a Modern Chinese Catholic novelist.

Two recent book chapters by Faries include a co-authored essay on portrayals of Buddhism in recent adaptations of the classic novel Journey to the West, as well as an exploration of Chinese spiritual practices as they contrast with instances of Western Christian spirituality. Professor Faries has translated several science fiction stories by Chinese authors, including Liu Cixin and Han Song, and these have appeared in Future Science Fiction Digest and The Big Book of Cyberpunk.