Yuji Xu

Biography

I am pursuing a Ph.D. in East Asian History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with a minor in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology (HSMT). My research interests include the transnational exchange of technology and knowledge among the U.S., socialist China, and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, modern Chinese literature and culture, and critical theory. My MA thesis, titled “From Computing Cosmopolitanism to People’s Computing: The Rise of Chinese Cybernetics and Chinese Computers, 1935-1966,” examines the intellectual circulation of cybernetics and the evolution of computing technology in socialist China during the Cold War period. For my doctoral project, I seek to offer a new perspective on the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the institutionalization of computer science as a modern discipline in (post/-)socialist China, analysed through the frameworks of intellectual and cultural history.

Education

Ph.D. Candidate, Chinese History (Modern China), City University of Hong Kong (Withdrawn)
M.Phil., Chinese Culture, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
M.A., Chinese Culture, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Distinction
Exchange, Theatre Arts, Chinese Culture University, Taipei
B.A., Literature of Theater, Film & TV, Zhejiang University of Media and Communications, Honors

Field

• East Asian History
• History of Science, Medicine, and Technology

MA Title

•  “From Computing Cosmopolitanism to People’s Computing: The Rise of Chinese Cybernetics and Chinese Computers, 1935-1966”

Selected Publications

Research Articles & Book Chapters

• “Engraving Anger: On Tan Sitong’s ‘Yu zhong tibi shi’ (Prison wall poetry).” In Handbook of Chinese Prison Literature, invited contribution, in progress.
• “The Chinese Inner Studies Institute,” “The Shanghai Buddhist Studies Publishing House,” “The Jetavana Hermitage.” In Encyclopedia of Hangzhou Buddhist Culture, edited by Ven. Guangquan, Albert Welter, and Jiang Wu. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.
• Written with Wang Qiyuan. “抒情、展演與文化復興：晚明僧人的情感風景與文學書寫 (Lyricism, performance, and cultural revival: the emotional landscapes and literary expressions of late Ming monks),” under review.
• Written with Dechun Zhang. “Media Use, Trust, and Nationalism: The Role of News and Social Media in Shaping Chinese Nationalism During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” In Routledge International Handbook of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China, edited by Cary Wu and Yidi Zhai. Routledge, 2026.
• “墨法與佛法：海內外晚明清初「四畫僧」研究之重估 (Ink paintings and Buddhist dharma: A reassessment of current research on the “Four Monk-Painters”).” 佛學研究 Buddhist Studies, no.1 (2025): forthcoming.
• Written with Viren Murthy. “Rethinking Philosophy in the Age of Science: Tan Sitong and Zhang Taiyan.” In Chinese Thought from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century, edited by Selusi Ambrogio and Dawid Rogacz. Vol. 3 of Chinese Philosophy and Its Thinkers: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. 65-89. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.
• “製造稚感、重塑日常：論西西詩歌中的香港「抒/書」情 (Creating childlike sensibility, reshaping the everyday: on the expression/writing of Hong Kong emotions in Xi Xi’s poetry).” 方圓: 文學及文化專 刊 O-Square: Literary and Cultural Journal 15, (Winter 2022): 174-209.
• “虹口的芥川龍之介 (Ryūnosuke Akutagawa in Hongkew).” In 虹口源 (Hongkew origin), edited by Li Tiangang and Wang Qiyuan, 148-159. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press, 2021.
• “地方史書寫的可能與實踐——兼評《保釐雲間》與上海地方 (The possibility and practice of writing local history: on Baoli yunjian and Shanghai locality).” 上海地方志 Shanghai Chronicles, no.1 (2021): 76-79.
• “看見/不見的聲與日常流動的景：另一種重構中國公園文化的可能 (The in/visible voice and the landscape of everyday mobility: an alternative reconstruction of Chinese park culture).” 思逸 Siyi Journal, no. 5 (2017): 13-15.
• “空間、日常與節慶：「模擬」時空裂縫中的都市檔案——論董啟章的《V 城繁勝錄》中的香港想象 (Space, everyday life, and festivity: urban archives in a ‘simulated’ temporal hiatus— imagining Hong Kong in Dung Kai-cheung’s Visible Cities).” 關東學刊 Guandong Journal, no. 12 (2016): 51-58.

Book Reviews and Review Articles

• “Review of Q. Edward Wang, Zhongguo xiandai lishi yishi de chansheng: Cong Zhengli guogu dao zaizao wenming (The Birth of Modern Chinese Historical Consciousness: Inventing China Through History).” Chinese Studies in History 58, no.1 (2025): 83-88.
• “從斜目而視到視差之見：打開《泛亞主義與中國革命遺產》的一種閱讀方法 (From ‘looking awry’ to the ‘parallax view’ : A reading approach to Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution).” 方圓: 文學及文化專刊 O-Square: Literary and Cultural Journal 23, (Winter 2024): 132-161.
• “Guanyin as Mediation: A New Study of Women’s Buddhist Devotion in Late Imperial China.” Studies in Chinese Religions 9, no.1 (2023): 99-108. [Chinese translation: “成（/不）為觀音：評李雨航《成為觀音：晚期帝制中國佛教女信眾的藝術奉獻》,” 華林國際佛學學刊 Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies 6, no.2 (2023): 330–344.]
• “白話文的軟肋：評《紫羅蘭的魅影：周瘦鵑與上海文學文化，1911-1949 (Vernacular Chinese’s Achilles heel: On The enchanting shadow of the Violet—Zhou Shoujuan and Shanghai literary culture, 1911-1949).” 二十一世紀 Twenty-First Century, no.187 (2021):150-158.

Other Scholarly Writings

• Academic Dialogue (co-authored with Viren Murthy, Wang Hui, and Saul Thomas). “Rethinking the Significance of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions: A Dialogue with Wang Hui.” Journal of Labor and Society 27, 2 (2024): 275-296.
• Academic Essay. “The Secular as Sacred: Dongzhen Temple and Five Strongholds in the Traditional Chinese State Sacrifice Ceremony.” From the Ground Up: Buddhism & East Asian Religions. February 2023.
• Academic Interview. “Lotus Lantern and the Making of the First Commercial Animated Film in Mainland China—An Interview with Animator Chang Guangxi.” Association for Chinese Animation Studies. January 3, 2018.

Translations

Translation From English into Chinese

• “在華語與英語的「世界間」：論白先勇與聶華苓的書寫/尋家園之軌跡” (Chinese translation of Kenny Kwok Kwan Ng’s “The Migrant Voice: The Politics of Writing Home between the Sinophone and Anglophone Worlds”), in 方圓: 文學及文化專刊 O-Square: Literary and Cultural Journal 25, (Summer 2025): 148-165.
• “爱在革命时”,《李劼人消失的地緣詩學視野：在革命中國書寫成都的危機》 (Chinese translation of Kenny Kwok Kwan Ng’s book chapter “Love in the Time of Revolution,” in The Lost Geopoetic Horizon of Li Jieren: The Crisis of Writing Chengdu in Revolutionary China): in progress.

Selected Awards

• Outstanding Academic Performance Award for Research Degree Students, 2022/23 (City University of Hong Kong)
• Outstanding Academic Performance Award for Research Degree Students, 2021/22 (City University of Hong Kong)
• Master of Arts in Chinese Culture Scholarship, 2016/17 (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
• Outstanding Graduates Honours Recipient of Zhejiang Province, 2015 (Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education, China)
• Outstanding Graduates Honours Recipient, 2015 (Zhejiang University of Media and Communications)
• Merit Student, 2014 (Zhejiang University of Media and Communications)
• Outstanding Student Award, the School of Arts, 2014 (Zhejiang University of Media and Communications)
• Outstanding Student Scholarship of Zhejiang Radio and Television Group, 2013(Zhejiang University of Media and Communications)

Courses Taught as TA

• History of Science 150: The Digital Age (Fall 2024)
• ILS 202: Western Culture: Science, Technology, Philosophy II (Spring 2025)