Jeff Tang

My honors thesis, “The Case of Li Zubai: A Study on Christian Influence and Persecution in 17th Century China,” studies the philosophical and theological thoughts of a 17th-century Chinese Catholic astronomer by the name of Li Zubai, who wrote an alternative historical theory that traced the origin of the Chinese peoples to the biblical figures of Adam and Eve. Through my study on Li, I hope to elucidate the intellectual effects of the confluence between orthodox Neo-Confucianism and Jesuit Catholicism that characterized the imperial court of the early Qing dynasty in China. My name is Jeff Tang and I am a junior history major and philosophy and professional writing minor at UCLA. I wish to attend the departmental scholars program in East Asian history and graduate with my bachelors and masters in four years.