About

I am a scholar of the cultural and material history of modern China, with a focus on the socialist period in the People’s Republic of China. My research interests include mass art practice, socialist amateurism, the material culture of the Cultural Revolution, and the postsocialist legacy in contemporary China.

My current book project, Worker, Peasant, Soldier, Artist: Mass Art in Socialist China, writes an alternative history of the Maoist fine arts project through the lens of the socialist amateur artist. By considering the making and exhibition of artwork by factory workers, rural commune members, and PLA soldiers, the book asks how we might take seriously an art history that exists outside, or even in opposition to the art academy, particularly within the context of the P.R.C.’s highly centralized institutional apparatus for cultural production.

I received my PhD from the University of Michigan, hold an MA in modern Chinese literature from Tsinghua University, and a BA from UC Berkeley. I’ve received grants and fellowships from the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Association for Asian Studies, and the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies.

I am currently Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese History and Culture at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. I taught previously in the Department of Art History at the University of Hong Kong.