Yuji Xu

Yuji Xu

yuji.xu@wisc.edu

Advisor: Devin Kennedy
Website

Yuji Xu

Biography

I am completing my Ph.D. in East Asian History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with a minor in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology. Before veering into the history of computing and data studies, I was trained as a scholar specialising in Chinese intellectual and cultural history, critical theory, and modern Chinese literature. My current research and teaching interests focus on the global history of computing, the politics of data and statistics, STS, colonial Hong Kong history, AI and machine translation.

Tentatively titled “Rule by Data: The Computerisation of Colonial Statecraft in British Hong Kong, 1963 to 1997,” my Ph.D. dissertation aims to explore how computer-mediated data came to redefine the material and epistemic practices of colonial statecraft, reshape the routine work of bureaucrats, and reconfigure new forms of administrative management in Cold War Hong Kong.

My second project focuses on the history of mathematics in socialist China, particularly the abstraction of mathematical theory, debates over the ideological legitimacy of economic models, and the practical application of operations research and linear programming.

Education

M.A., History, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Ph.D. Candidate, Chinese History (Modern China), City University of Hong Kong (Withdrawn)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”

    Working Dissertation Title

    Rule by Data: The Computerisation of Colonial Statecraft in British Hong Kong, 1963 to 1997

    Selected Publications

    Research Articles & Book Chapters

    • “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, 2026.
    • “Between handwriting and handmaking: on Xi Xi’s literary chronicles of object-making and her life history of disability.” Chung Wai Literary Monthly 55, no.2 (2026): 251-284 [THCI-Chinese]
    • Written with Dechun Zhang. “Shaping Nationalism: Media Use and Trust in China.” In Routledge International Handbook of the COVID-19 Pandemic in China, edited by Cary Wu and Yidi Zhai. Routledge, 2026.
    • “Ink Paintings and Buddhist Dharma: A Reappraisal of ‘Four Monk as Painters’ in China and Beyond.” Buddhist Studies 42, no.1 (2025): 352-378. [CSSCI Expanded Edition-Chinese]
    • 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. 65-90. Vol. 3 of Chinese Philosophy and Its Thinkers: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.
    • “Creating Childlike Sensibility, Reshaping the Everyday: On the Expression/Writing of Hong Kong Affect in Xi Xi’s Poetry.” O-Square: Literary and Cultural Journal 15, (Winter 2022): 174-209. [Chinese]
    • “Ryūnosuke Akutagawa in Hongkew.” In Hongkew Origin, edited by Li Tiangang and Wang Qiyuan, 148-159. Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Press, 2021. [Chinese]
    • “The Possibility and Practice of Writing Local History: On Baoli yunjian and Shanghai Locality.” Shanghai Chronicles, no.1 (2021): 76-79. [Chinese]
    • “The In/visible Voice and the Landscape of Everyday Mobility: An Alternative Reconstruction of Chinese Park Culture.” Siyi Journal, no. 5 (2017): 13-15. [Chinese]
    • “Space, Everyday life, and Festivity: Urban Archives in A ‘Simulated’ Temporal Hiatus— Imagining Hong Kong in Dung Kai-cheung’s Visible Cities).” Guandong Journal, no. 12 (2016): 51-58. [Chinese]

    Book Reviews and Review Articles

    • Review of Angela Ki Che Leung, Imagining the South: Environment, Body, Disease, and Globalization in Early Modern South China. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal 20, no. 2 (2006): 259-262.
    • Review of Q. Edward Wang, The Birth of Modern Chinese Historical Consciousness: Inventing China Through History. Chinese Studies in History 58, no.1 (2025): 83-88.
    • “From ‘Looking Awry’ to the ‘Parallax View’: A Reading Approach to Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution.” O-Square: Literary and Cultural Journal 23, (Winter 2024): 132-161. [Chinese]
    • “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.
    • “Vernacular Chinese’s Achilles heel: On The Enchanting Shadow of the Violet—Zhou Shoujuan and Shanghai Literary Culture, 1911-1949).” Twenty-First Century, no.187 (2021): 150-158. [Chinese]

    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 of English into Chinese
    • Chinese translation of Kenny Kwok Kwan Ng’s “The Migrant Voice: The Politics of Writing Home between the Sinophone and Anglophone Worlds.” O-Square: Literary and Cultural Journal 25, (Summer 2025): 148-165.
    • Chinese translation of Kenny Kwok Kwan Ng’s book chapter “Love in the Time of Revolution.” Historical Materials and Interpretation, under review.

    Selected Awards

    (From 2015 onwards)

    • Visiting Scholar Award, University of Bristol, 2027
    • Research Travel Funds, UW–Madison, Fall 2026
    • Department of History Excellence in Teaching Award, 2026
    • Mini Research Fellowship, Holtz Center for Science & Technology Studies, UW–Madison, 2026
    • F. Hilary Conroy Award, The Association for Asian Studies (AAS), 2026
    • Program Fund, The Eighth Glorisun International Intensive Program on Buddhist Studies, 2025
    • Conference Grant, City University of Hong Kong, 2023
    • Outstanding Academic Performance Award for Research Degree Students, City University of Hong Kong, 2022-2023
    • Research Tuition Scholarship, City University of Hong Kong, 2022-2023
    • Receiver of the Research Activities Fund, City University of Hong Kong, 2022-2023
    • Outstanding Academic Performance Award for Research Degree Students, City University of Hong Kong, 2021-2022
    • Master of Arts in Chinese Culture Scholarship, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2016-2017