Olga A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya was born in Moscow in 1991. In 2009 she graduated from G. V. Starovoitova gymnasium No.397 (advanced study of English and German) and began to study at the Department of World Languages and Cultures at the Russian Christian Humanities Academy, at the Department of Japanese Cultural History and Confucius Institute at the Faculty of Asian and African Studies, Saint Petersburg State University. In 2011 she graduated from Confucius Institute (standard course of Chinese language, diploma with honours) and continued language study at the Capital Normal University 首都師範大學 (Beijing, China). In September 2011 she received a grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation to participate in the “Reading Chinese Poetry in Comparative Perspective” seminar for young sinologists (Charles University, Prague) and in October 2012 received another grant to take part in the “Narrating the state” summer school at the same university. After winning a prize in the Japanese Public Speaking Contest (日本語弁論大会) she went to Japan for language study (Tokyo and Akita) in 2012.

In 2014 Olga A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya successfully graduated from the Russian Christian Humanities Academy (specialist degree with honours, thesis topic: “Transformation of Japanese foreign policy concepts in the 1st–14th centuries” [Трансформация японской концепции внешнеполитических отношений в I-XIV вв.]) and was accepted for full-time postgraduate study at the Department of Far Eastern Studies at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS.

During postgraduate study at the IOM RAS, she received the EACS/CCK Foundation library travel grant for research in the Oxford University Library (UK).

In 2017–2019 she received the Confucius China Studies Program Joint Research Ph.D. Fellowship at the Nankai University 南開大學 (China).

She is a member of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) and the Chinese Studies Association of Australia (CSAA).

In October 2019 Olga A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya completed postgraduate study at the IOM RAS. Dissertation topic: “Confucian exegetics in ancient and early medieval China: towards a historical typology of Confucian commentary” [Конфуцианская экзегетика в древности и раннем средневековье: историческая типология конфуцианского комментария]. Research supervisor: Professor Irina F. Popova, Corresponding Member of the RAS, Director of the IOM RAS.
On June 25, 2021 she defended this dissertation for the degree of candidate in historical sciences (specialisation 07.00.09 — Historiography, source study and historical research methods) at the Faculty of Asian and African Studies, Saint Petersburg State University.

In November 2019 she joined the Department of Far Eastern Studies at the IOM RAS as a junior researcher.

Since November 2019 she works as Assistant Professor at the Department of Chinese Studies at the Herzen University Institute of Oriental Studies.

Research interests: History of ancient and medieval China and its cultural, intellectual, social aspects; Confucian exegetics (jingxue 經學) source study: its history, exegetical methods, intellectual trends, personalities; historico-typological studies of traditional Confucian commentary; sociocultural functions of Confucian canonical texts; history of Confucian philosophical thought; Chinese political ideology; “Five Classics” (Wujing 五經); paleography; Chinese and Japanese cursive writing.

Publications