Ziwei Qiu

The Chinese character 聽 (tīng) means “to listen.” It is composed of multiple meaningful components: 耳 (ear), 目 (eye), and 心 (heart). Together, these elements symbolize the act of truly listening with all senses—using the ear to hear, the eye to observe, and the heart to empathize. In research on women in the Tang Dynasty, 聽 captures the essence of the approach: attentively discerning the often-overlooked voices of women within the stories usually told by men.