Cyril Birch

Cyril Birch, Agassiz Professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature, retired in 1990 after 44 years of teaching, first in London's School of Oriental and African Studies and then from 1960 onwards at Berkeley. He has held research fellowships at Stanford, and in Hong Kong, Kyoto, and Washington D.C., and visiting professorships at Taiwan National University and in Hawaii, Melbourne, and British Columbia. His publications cover traditional fiction and drama and twentieth century writers. Stories from a Ming Collection (1958) is still in print as a paperback, as are other books, including Anthology of Chinese Literature (2 vols.), Peony Pavilion, and Scenes for Mandarins. He and his wife Dorothy enjoy frequent visits by their two children and three grandchildren to their retreat in the Sierra Nevada foothills.