From 1958 to 1962, Jenner studied sinology at Oxford and wrote his dissertation about the history of Luoyang in the fifth and sixth centuries, especially through the work of Yang Xuanzhi. His first wife was the China scholar Delia Davin.[1]
From 1963 to 1965, he worked as a translator at Foreign Languages Press in Beijing. There he translated From Emperor to Citizen, an "autobiography" of the last Emperor of China, Puyi, and started translating the novel Journey to the West into English.
From 1979 to 1985, Jenner travelled to China every summer, and worked on the translation of Journey to the West and other works, for example by Lu Xun. He has written about the process and politics of translating and publishing Journey to the West in an essay published in the Los Angeles Review of Books (3 Feb 2016).[2]
Various (1970). Modern Chinese Stories. W.J.F. Jenner (translator) and Gladys Yang (translator). Oxford University Press.
Various (1987). Chinese Lives. An Oral History of Contemporary China. W.J.F. Jenner (translator), Delia Davin (translator) and Cheng Lingfang (translator). New York: Pantheon.
Pu Yi, Aisin-Gioro (1987). From Emperor to Citizen. The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi. W.J.F. Jenner (translator). Oxford University Press.
Pu Yi, Aisin-Gioro (1992). From Emperor to Citizen. The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi. W.J.F. Jenner (translator). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.
Leping, Zhang (1981). Adventures of Sanmao the Orphan. W.J.F. Jenner (translator) and C.M. Chan (translator). Hong Kong: Joint Publications.
Jen, Yu-wen (1969). The Taiping Revolutionary Movement.
Monographs
Jenner, W.J.F. (1981). Memories of Loyang. Yang Hsüan-chih and the Lost Capital, 493–534. Oxford / New York: Clarendon Press / Oxford University Press.
Jenner, W.J.F. (1992). The Tyranny of History. The Roots of China's Crisis. London: Penguin.
Jenner, W.J.F. (1993). A Knife in My Ribs for a Mate. Reflections on Another Chinese Tradition. Canberra: Australian National University.
