Academic Staff

Prof. ZHANG Yu

Associate Professor

Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature, film and cultural studies, Technology, Media, and Modern Chinese Culture, Chinese Revolutionary and Socialist Culture

HHB610
+852 3400 8952
yu-y.zhang@polyu.edu.hk

PolyU Scholars Hub

SCOPUS ID

Biography

Yu Zhang received her Ph.D. from the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University in 2014. Her first book, Going to the Countryside: The Rural in the Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915–1965 (2020), examines the cultural representations and practices of "going to the countryside" between 1915 and 1965. As a critical response to the "urban turn" of recent decades, the book brings the rural back to the center of Chinese cultural studies, arguing that the rural has been constructed as a distinct modern experiential and aesthetic realm characterized by revolutionary transformations in human conceptions and sentiments.

She is currently working on a book project titled Wiring the Hearts: A Sentimental Media History of Phones in China, which explores the cultural representations of various forms of "telephonic love/sentiment" from the early twentieth century to the 1990s — a prehistory to the age of the mobile phone — and examines the intersections of telecommunications, media, affect, and materiality.

Her General Research Fund project, "China at Work,” has led to the publication of two essays: "A Collective Fantasia of the Financial Age" and "The Cult of Craftsmanship."

Education and Academic Qualifications

Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University

Academic and Professional Experience

Associate Professor, Department of Chinese History and Culture, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2024. 7 –)
Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese Culture, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (2018.11 – 2024.6)

Teaching Area

The Culture of Work in Contemporary China

Twentieth-century Chinese Literary and Cultural Masterpieces

Chinese Film and Society

Contemporary Chinese History and Culture

Modern Chinese Literature

Discovering Literature in Hong Kong

Research Interests

Research Output

2020 Going to the Countryside: The Rural in Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915-1965 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press)

[Reviewed by: Journal of Asian Studies [JAS], The China Quarterly, The China Journal, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture [MCLC], Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews [CLEAR] , Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature, Chinese Literature and Thought Today, The English Historical Review, International Comparative Literature 《國際比較文學（中英文）》]

2024 “The Cult of Craftsmanship in China: The Industrial Hand and the Artisanal Hand in the Age of High Technology,” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture (MCLC), June 2024, vo. 36, No. 1: pp. 151-180.

[MCLC’s “Most Read” Article Top 1, accessed on Feb 1, 2026]

Published in Chinese as《當代中國的工匠崇拜》微信公衆號保馬，2026年2月10日 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/FbdCikM5NmASAIfnTgA6PA

2024 “A Collective Fantasia of the Financial Age in Early 1990s China: Erotic-Speculative Sensation, Neoliberal Labor Heroine, and Presentist Worldly Wisdom,” Positions: Asia Critique, August 2024, vol. 32, Issue 3, pp. 573–600.

Published in Chinese as《感性金融：“梁鳳儀熱”與九十年代中國金融觀念的感性體驗》(feature article特稿)《現代中文學刊》，2005年第4期（總第97期），pp. 4-14.

2020 “The Discourse of ‘Patience’ and the Rural Revolutionary Narrative of Yan’an: Rereading Ding Ling’s In the Hospital,” (“耐心”的話語与延安的鄉土革命敘事——重讀丁玲的《在醫院中》), Reviews and Research on Chinese Literature (現代中文學刊), Issue 4. Reprinted in Ding Ling Studies (《丁玲研究》), Issue 1, 2021. http://www.dingling.org.cn/news/649.html
2018 “Enchanting a World of Crafts: Handmade and Homemade Things, Affective Labor, and Orality in The Road Home (1999),” Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Vol. 12, No. 1, 2018 (online first, September 2016), 1-19.
2017 “Socialist Builders on the Rails and Road: Industrialization, Mobility, and National Imagination in Chinese Socialist Films, 1949-1965,” Twentieth-Century China 42, No. 3, October 2017, 255–273.
2013 “Visual and Theatrical Constructs of a Modern Life in the Countryside: James Yen, Xiong Foxi, and the Rural Reconstruction Movement in Ding County (1920s-1930s).” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, 25, 1 (spring): 47-95.
2010 “Garden: Remembrance and Revolutionary Gesture in Ba Jin’s Family” (花园：往事追忆与革命姿态—重读巴金的《家》), Modern Chinese Literary Studies (《中国现代文学研究丛刊》). 3, 119-131 (in Chinese)

2026 Review of Chinese Animation: Multiplicities in Motion eds. Daisy Yan Du (Lead editor), John A. Crespi and Yiman Wang. Cambridge and London: the Harvard University Asia Center. 2025. Association for Chinese Animation Studies (ACAS) online.
2025 Review of Working the System: Motion Picture, Filmmakers, and Subjectivities in Mao-Era China, 1949–1966 by Qiliang He. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2023. The China Journal
2023 Review of Shakespeare and East Asia by Alexa Alice Joubin, Oxford University Press, 2021. Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. (A+ Faculty Journal List)
2022 Review of Utopian Ruins: A Memorial Museum of the Mao Era by Jie Li. Durham: Duke University Press, 2020. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. December. Pp. 162-167 (A+ Faculty Journal List)
2021 Review of Urban Horror: Neoliberal Post-Socialism and the Limits of Visuality by Erin Y. Huang. Journal of Asian Studies. Durham: Duke University Press. 2020. 1064-1065. (A+ Faculty Journal List)
2019 Review of Revolutionary Waves: The Crowd in Modern China by Tie Xiao Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2017. Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature (no. 1), 2019. 208-210.
2017 Review of Visions of Dystopia in China’s New Historical Novels by Jeffrey C. Kinkley. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. Chinese Literature Today 6:1, 138-139.

2021 《禁忌與真相：從〈西江月〉到〈白鴿木蘭〉》(“Taboo and Truth: from Western Moon River to White Dove and Lily Magnolia,” Shanghai Review of Books 《上海書評-澎湃新聞》. July 17. https://m.thepaper.cn/api_prom.jsp?contid=13625135&from= （Reprinted by Sohu News, Sina News, Toutiao News and other websites） (搜狐新聞、新浪新聞、頭條新聞等多家網站轉載）
2018 “Postsocialism and Its Narratives: An Interview with Cai Xiang” (co-interviewed and co-translated with Calvin Hui), MCLC Resource Center Publication (on-line) （The Chinese version 《重建开放的文学理解——蔡翔访谈录》was published by Reviews and Research on Chinese Literature (《現代中文學刊》2019年第4期）

https://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/zhang-hui/

https://www.douban.com/group/topic/194794908/?_i=6577733LUwIqgK

2026 《如何告別上海，怎樣走向鄉土：跨學科、跨媒介、跨地域的方法論（對書評的回應）》《文學》復旦大學出版社，即將出版

2024 Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) 2023/24
2022-2025 General Research Fund, Research Grants Council, H.K.S.A.R., awarded for a three-year project entitled “China at Work: Revolutionizing the Culture of Work and the Post-Mao Chinese Cultural Imaginaries,” Principle Investigator, HKD 297,209
2015-2016 Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation Junior Scholar Grant, Principle Investigator, USD 19,200/ 1 year
2013-2014 Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation Doctoral Fellowship
2012—2013 Mabelle McLeod Lewis Memorial Fund for Grants in Aid of Scholarly Work
2004 Hong Kong Baptist University LEWI Resident Graduate Scholarship

2025 “The Cult of Craftsmen in Contemporary China: The Aesthetics of the Hand, ‘Craftsmanship’ as Method, and Documentary Representations” 当代中国的工匠崇拜：手的美学、作为方法的“工匠”与纪录片再现The School of Ethnology and Sociology, Guangxi Minzu University, December 22.
2025 “The initial encounter between electronic media and literature: the case of Mandarin Ducks and Butterfly works” 電子媒介與文學的初相遇：“鴛鴦蝴蝶”的電話訴衷腸. Hong Kong Metropolitan University. November 6
2025 “Early Telephone, Efficiency and Economism”: Creating a Wired New Urban Life by Shanghai Telephone Company in the 1930s,” East Asian Humanities Workshop, Stanford University, October 16
2025 “Early Telephone, Efficiency and Economism”: Creating a Wired New Urban Life by Shanghai Telephone Company in the 1930s,” Center for East Asian Studies, The University of Chicago, October 9
2025 “90年代初中國走向金融時代的集體狂想曲” 華東師範大學2025年百場校級學術講座暨華東師範大學中文系2025年中融講堂第33講，5月28日
2024 “A Collective Fantasia of the Financial Age in Early 1990s China: On Finance and Literature,” China Studies Seminar Series 2023-2024 Term 2, The Centre for China Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (March 26)
2023 “The Craftsman in the Post-industrial Era: Labor, Sentiment and Skill,” Pearl River Delta Area Postgraduate Seminar, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
2022 “Constructing Socialist Rural Industrial Aesthetics: Creativity, ‘Play as Labor’ and ‘Handcraft as Industry’," Jilin University, Changchun, P. R. China (Zoom)
2021 “Going to the Countryside as Modern Experience,” Society of Fellows in the Humanities Lecture Series, The University of Hong Kong
2021 “Creating the Rural Vernacular, and How to Reread Modern China through the Lens of Spatial Crossings,” The Center for Cultural Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2018 “A Talk on Research and Writing Capstone Dissertation,” School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong
2018 “Industrializing the Chinese Countryside in Representational and Aesthetic Forms: A Socialist Fantasia of Human Creativity,” Lunchtime seminar series at the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong
2016 “The Playful and the Artisanal in the Imaginary of Socialist Industrialization,” Department of Modern Languages & Cultures, College of William & Mary, USA

June 7-8, 2026 An international conference “Resonant Media: Sound, Network and Communication Technologies,” The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the sole organizer
May 12, 2025 An international workshop AI時代的感官記憶：媒介技術、物質及其他 (The Sensual Memories in the Age of AI: Media Technologies, Embodiments, and Beyond), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the sole organizer
February 14- 15, 2025 An international workshop “Wiring China: Information, Affect and Media Technologies,” The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the sole organizer

Yu Zhang, “Going to the Countryside: The Rural in Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination,” The New Books Network, Sep 20, 2025
張宇講座 “90年代初中國走向金融時代的集體狂想曲” 回顧：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8OOYcQMBnZPpqlVPpHEFcw
《重绘感官地图：AI时代的记忆生成、技术中介与人文反思》《澎湃新闻》2025-06-11 https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_30961826
“Prof. Zhang Yu’s Invited Talks on Media/Technology Studies in U Chicago, Stanford, and Other Universities Across China.” FH Newsletter 2026 Issue 1 https://www.polyu.edu.hk/fh/news-and-events/newsletter/2026-issue-1/prof-zhang-yus-invited-talks-on-media/

Esteem Measures

dr-dr-zhang-yu-publication-going_to-the-countryside

2020 Going to the Countryside: The Rural in Modern Chinese Cultural Imagination, 1915-1965 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press)