Meir Shahar born in 1959 in Jerusalem (Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

) a Professor in the Department of East Asian Studies at the Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...

.

After studying at the University of Jerusalem, he studied Chinese languages in Taipei

Taipei

Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

. He obtained a PhD in Asian languages and civilizations at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

in 1992.

His current research focuses on interactions between Chinese religions, the Chinese literature, and Chinese martial arts.

Books

The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion and the Chinese Martial Arts, 2008, The University of Hawai'i Press.

• ((Hebrew)) Wu Cheng'en, translation Meir Shahar, Monkey and the Magic Gourd. Crazy Ji: Chinese Religion and Popular Literature, Harvard University Asia Center, 1998
• ((Hebrew)) The Chinese Religion ("Ha-Dat ha-Sinit"), The Broadcast University Series Press, 1998. with Robert Weller, Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China, University of Hawai'i Press, 1996.

External links

• http://www.tau.ac.il/~mshahar/