This post is part of a series of interviews with our incoming class for the “Virtue & Happiness” 2016 Summer Seminar. Wenqing Zhao is Post-doctoral Research Fellow and Assistant Director, the Center for Comparative Philosophy, Duke University.

Valerie Wallace: Where are you from?
Wenqing Zhao: I was born and raised in mainland China, and I spent most of my adult life in Hong Kong.

 

VW: Tell me about your current research.
WZ: My primary research areas are Confucian and comparative philosophy, moral psychology and applied ethics. I believe that the search for a sensible and productive moral foundation can only be the fruit of cross-cultural dialogue given what we know about ourselves from empirical psychology.

 

VW: What are you most looking forward to about this summer’s Virtue & Happiness seminar?
WZ: I am really looking forward to learning about how different traditions conceive virtue, happiness and the meaning of life, and the latest neurobiological studies on moral development. It is also a wonderful opportunity to get to know other young researchers of virtue and happiness.

 

VW: What are your non-academic interests?
WZ: I love diving, traveling, stand-up and cross-talk comedy (xiangsheng 相声 in Chinese).