Todd Foley

Todd Foley is a scholar and translator of modern Chinese literature. He holds a BA from Oberlin College in Classics and East Asian Studies, an MA from Dartmouth in Comparative Literature, and a PhD from NYU in modern Chinese literature. His dissertation focused on ideas of human and animal in modern Chinese literature, and his publications on this topic include articles and book chapters examining the work of Lu Xun, Xiao Hong, Mao Dun, Mo Yan, and Can Xue. His recent translations include I Love Bill and Other Stories by Wang Anyi (Cornell 2023), City of Fiction by Yu Hua (Europa 2025), and Chinese Millennials: What Is To Be Done? by Yang Qingxiang (Palgrave Macmillan 2025), and his translations of short fiction have appeared in The Paris Review, Joyland, and The Carolina Quarterly. Currently, he is working on a project interrogating the circumstances of Chinese literature in English translation, examining particular literary works and academic debates in light of certain theories of translation to suggest a new approach to world literature. At NYU, he teaches courses on Chinese literature, film, and translation.