Yuan Zhang finished her undergraduate study in China and received an M.A. in East Asian Studies at the University of Alberta. Her academic endeavor starts with the study of pre-Qin Daoism, especially the use of metaphors and the attitude toward language in the Laozi and the Zhuangzi. Before she transferred to the UF, she spent three years at UIUC, working on the border between literary theories and philosophies of medieval China. It seems that due to her academic interest in Daoism, she eventually found herself attracted to Mahāyāna Buddhism before Song. She aspires to further explore the connections between the body and the mind in Buddhist traditions, particularly mediation of the Tiantai School, study of the mind in the Yogācāra tradition, dietary culture in Buddhist monastic practices. Besides her recluse-like academic life, she is also enthusiastic about diet, endurance & weight training.
She has organized and chaired two panels and presented several of her works in China, Canada, and the United States. She is also the co-author of the article “Tao Yuanming in Recently Unearthed Epitaphs from the Sui and Tang” in The Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture.