Yiwen Li

Yiwen Li is an Associate Professor of History at City University of Hong Kong. Specializing in maritime East Asian history, material culture, and Buddhist monastic economies, her research explores transnational interactions between China and Japan during the medieval period.

• PhD in History from Yale University
• BA (2008) and MA (2011) from Peking University

Her award-winning book Networks of Faith and Profit (Cambridge University Press, 2023) examines religio-commercial networks between Buddhist monks and merchants during the suspension of Sino-Japanese tribute relations. Through Spring 2024, she serves as a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin, where she participates in the "Ability and Authority" working group.

Her current project, "Sacred Crafts: Artisans and Buddhist Monasteries in China and Japan, 960–1368," extends her analysis of Buddhist economic systems. Awards include the Arthur and Mary Wright Prize (2017) and a Joseph Levenson Prize honorable mention.