- Contemporary China Centre
- Homelands
- History Research Group
- Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture
About me
I am a Senior Lecturer in Chinese cultural studies and Director of the Contemporary China Centre. I originally came to the Contemporary China Centre to study for a PhD in 2010, following an MMUS in ethnomusicology from the School of Oriental and African Studies. Prior to postgraduate study, I worked as a music journalist in Beijing, mainly writing scripts and articles for China Radio International and Time Out Beijing. My first monograph examined the relationship between city branding, built environment and sound in the production of urban space and was published with the University of Hawai'i Press in 2019. My second monograph will examine post-Mao discourse on the Third Front, a huge military-industrial project launched in the 1960s.
Teaching
I mainly teach Chinese language and cultural/area studies at undergraduate level. I am interested in bridging the gap between language and cultural studies by approaching language texts in class not only as language-learning resources but also examples of discourse that shed light on the social and cultural contexts in which they were produced. We have an online collection of Chinese propaganda posters which I regularly use in teaching, together with Chinese animation from the Mao era onwards.
Research
My current research explores the afterlives of the Mao era and early Reform era in contemporary discourse, urban space, and cultural production. I would be interested in expressions of interest from potential PhD candidates within this broad area, particularly from those interested in combining ethnographic and textual methods.
My earlier research drew on ethnographic and textual data to explore the relationship between city branding, built environment and leisure in the production of urban Chinese space. More recently, I have been working on memories and representations of the Third Front, a huge military-industrial project launched in the 1960s. I also write about Chinese animation, with a particular interest in continuities and discontinuities of cultural production across the Mao-Reform divide.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.