David Leiwei Li

Dr. David Li was born in Shanghai, China to MinZhi Tao (mother) and ZhengTing Li (father). He graduated from Shanghai Foreign Languages Institute in 1982. In 1986, he attained M.A. in English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 1991, he obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He taught at the University of Southern California from 1991 to 1999, and joined the University of Oregon in 1999 as a Collins Professor of the Humanities emeritus until his retirement in 2018.  

David made outstanding contributions in the academic field, and his research on Chinese cinema was highly regarded. As a scholar specializing in the study of literature and culture in the 20th century, David’s academic perspective spanned across North America and East Asia, with a long-term focus on how race/ethnicity, modernity, and globality inform the constitution of (trans)national imaginaries and individual subjectivities in the era of late capital. 

After retirement, David settled in Portland and continued to explore the world and express his unique reflections on life through lectures, writing, sculpture, painting, and photographs. His art has been exhibited in group and solo shows in Oregon, China, Wisconsin, Washington, New York, Venice, Chicago. There is currently an exhibit of his Tibet photographs at the Phoenix Art Museum that will end this summer 2025.

David is survived by his son Art (Eileen) and his two brothers, YuWei, ZhouWei.

Donations can be made in David Li’s memory to:  

Elizabeth Warren https://elizabethwarren.com

Oregon Public Broadcasting.  https://www.opb.org/give/