Contact
Biography
I joined the Department of Culture, Media and Visual Studies (formerly Department of Culture, Film and Media), the University of Nottingham, in 2013. Prior to this, I worked as Lecturer in Asian Media at Nottingham Trent University (2012-13), Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Potsdam (2011, part-time), Lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Sydney (2006-10, part-time) and Lecturer in International and Intercultural Communication at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, Beijing (2002-06). I was DAAD Fellow at the Free University of Berlin from 2010 to 2011, and British Academy Visiting Fellow at Goldsmiths College,University of London, from 2011 to 2012. I received a PhD in Gender Studies and Cultural Studies from the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2011. I was born in Shaanxi, China, in 1977 and grew up in Inner Mongolia. I have been living in the UK since 2011.
I am Director of Research for the Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies and Director of the Centre for Critical Theory and Cultural Studies (CCTCS).I am a member of the Institute for Screen Industry Research (ISIR) and Asia Research Institute at Nottingham. I am a Research Associate of Centre for Chinese Visual Arts, Birmingham School of Art; International Institute of Asia Studies, Leiden University; and a Guest Professor at Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts.
I serve on the editorial boards of British Journal of Chinese Studies, Chinese Independent Cinema Observer, Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics (Springer), Cultural China (Westminster University Press), and Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art and Political Cinemas (Edinburgh University Press). I write and edit a column, Queer Lens, for the Chinese Independent Film Archive website. I co-edit the Bloomsbury book series on Queering China: Transnational Genders and Sexualities and the de Gruyter book series ALMS2019, China Academic Network on Gender, China Rainbow Media Awards, Queer Asia, Refeng Xueshu: A Journal of Contemporary Cultural Studies and Translation for Change. I serve on the jury of the Cambridge Waterprite Student film Festival, Shanghai Queer Film Festival, and the Beijing Film Academy Focus Student Film Festival.
I am a Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society (FRAS) and Higher Education Academy (FHEA). I am also a Trustee of UK New Artists (UKNA), a significant national arts organisation.
I have directed and curated film programmes for the Nottingham Chinese Independent Film Festival (in collaboration with the Broadway Cinema Nottingham) and various other film screening events and research workshops. I have also organised events for the University of Nottingham's LGBT History Month. I curated a Chinese queer film programme for the Chinese New Year events at the Nottingham Lakeside Arts. I also co-organised the Transnational Radical Film Cultures conference, Queer Asia as Method Roundtable and Townhall, and China and/in the Global South: Cultures, Aesthetics and Politics research symposium.
As part of my KE and impact work, I am also the producer of the Queer Chinese Arts Festival, Queer Zine-Making project, Drag Up!, Queers Across the Waves, Poetics of Migration and Ode to Notts project. A documentary about the Drag Up! project can be found here.
Besides being an academic, I also write poems, short stories, film/art reviews, critical essays, op-eds in both English and Chinese. As a translator, I translate between Chinese and English.
I have been interviewed by or have provided commentary on gender, sexuality and media in China for the following international media organisations: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Deutsche Welle, Intellectuals, Kyodo News, The Economist, The Guardian, New York Times, Protocol, Sky News, South China Morning Post, SupChina, Times Higher Education, Times Out, Weekendavisen, Vice, among others.
I am on research leave in Autumn semester, 2024-25, and am a Marie Jahoda Fellow at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany during the period.
Expertise Summary
I am a media and cultural studies researcher and my current research primarily focuses on:
- Gender and sexuality in transnational China:
- East and Southeast Asian cultural production globally;
- The use of arts-based, creative and participatory approach for community empowerment;
- Minority representation in creative and cultural industries.
Teaching Summary
In 2024-25, I teach the following modules:
CULT2011 Media Identities: Who We Are and How We Feel (semester 2, second year module)
CULT3033 & CULT4059 Gender, Sexuality and Media (semester 2, third year and MA module)
I also contribute to the Researching Media and Media module with research methodology workshops.
I supervise BA and MA dissertations as well as PhD theses.
The PhD and MPhil projects that I am currently supervising include:
The Noir Aesthetics in Chinese Cinema;
Metamorphosis in Transnational Women's Writing;
Queer Ballroom Culture in Shanghai;
Indigenous Queer Performance in the US..
I have supervised the following PhD projects to completion:
Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival;
Representation of the Cultural Revolution on Contemporary Chinese Screen;
The Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Art as Cultural Diplomacy;
The Use of the Literary Fantastic in Diasporic Chinese Women's Writing;
The Animal and the Human in Late Imperial Chinese Novels;
Women and Contemporary Chinese Art;
The Nostalgic Mode of Expression on Chinese Screen Media;
Feng Xiaogang's 'New Year Celebration Films'
Live Streaming Digital Video Platform in China;
Contemporary Chinese Girlhood Film;
History of the China Film Group Corporation
Research Summary
My first single-authored monograph, Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Queer Politics in Postsocialist China, was published by the Nordic Institute of Asia Studies Press in 2018. Interviews about the… read more
Recent Publications
Current Research
My first single-authored monograph, Queer Comrades: Gay Identity and Queer Politics in Postsocialist China, was published by the Nordic Institute of Asia Studies Press in 2018. Interviews about the book can be found on Notches, New Books Network and CEMEAS. Queer Comrades was featured on the Vogue magazine's 'essential queer reading list' in 2022.
My second single-authored monograph, titled Queer China: Lesbian and Gay Literature and Visual Culture under Postsocialism, was published by Routledge in 2020. Some news and event updates as well as teaching and learning resources are available on the Taylor and Francis author website. An interview about the book can be found on Notches and New Books Network. A review of the book can be found on Feminist Encounters, Critical Arts, European Journal of Cultural Studies, Global Media and China and Cha: An Asian Literary Journal.
My third single-authored monograph, Queer Media in China, was published by Routledge in 2021. The book has been reviewed by The Journal of Asian Studies and The China Journal.
My fourth single-authored monograph, Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance, was published by Routledge in August 2022. The book has been reviewed by Feminist Encounters.
My fifth single-authored monograph, Queering the Asian Diaspora, is forthcoming with Sage in 2025.
My co-edited book, Contemporary Queer Chinese Art (with Jamie J. Zhao and Diyi Mergenthaler), was published by Bloomsbury in July 2023. You can watch the recording of a book launch here.
I am the co-editor, with Dr Jamie J. Zhao, of Routledge Handbook for Chinese Gender and Sexuality and the Bloomsbury book series Queering China: Transnational Gender and Sexualities. I have also co-edited Queer Chinese-Language Literature (with Yahia Ma) and Entanglements and Ambivalences: Africa and China Encounters in Media and Culture (with Daniel Mutibwa), and Queer/Tongzhi China: New Perspectives on Research, Activism and Media Cultures (with Elisabeth Enbegretsen and William Shroeder).
I have also co-edited a special issue of position papers for British Journal of Chinese Studies, a special double issue on contemporary Chinese art in the Diaspora for Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, and a special issue on queer Chinese screens for Journal of Chinese Cinemas.
My poetry collection The Passion of the Rabbit God and poetry pamphlet Dream of the Orchid Pavilion are both out in 2024.
Some of my writings on queer cinema are available on the CIFA website.
My ORCID ID is https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1905-7926