Dr Christine Abigail L. Tan
I am a Filipino-born philosopher whose main areas of expertise are Chinese, Comparative, and Decolonial Philosophy in general, and Daoist philosophy in particular.
About
Dr Tan has published extensively in Chinese philosophy (with a specific focus on Guo Xiang). Her work has spanned a variety of social and epistemological themes from classical and medieval Chinese textual analysis to problem-driven treatments of traditionally Euro-centric issues such as freedom and autonomy. This includes published journal articles on Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Ultimately, her goal is to push the boundaries for how we understand selfhood, agency, and community from inter-cultural and truly global lenses.
She did her PhD at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, where she wrote her dissertation titled ‘Freedom as Self-realisation: Zide in the Neo-Daoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang’. Before that, she did her MA and BA at the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines, where her areas of focus were psychoanalysis and post-structuralist philosophy.
From November 2026 onwards, she will be a Lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Areas of Specialisation
Chinese Philosophy
(Ancient Classical Texts, Daoism, Neo-Daoism, Chan Buddhism)
Areas of Competence
Decolonnial Theory, Social Epistemology, Psychoanalysis