Liang-Hua Yu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Department of Languages Literatures and Cultures

My research has focused on contemporary Chinese cinema, TV, and new media, comparative philosophy and critical theory, adaptation and counterfeit culture, transmedia narratives, and global neoliberalization. My first book project, entitled "Unoriginal Sin: Visual Consumption and the Emergence of a New Middle Class in Global China," examines the formation of a global urban middle-class consciousness and commodity-based sociality in postsocialist China as well as across the digital Sinosphere. Bringing together literary, cultural and socioeconomic analyses, it studies the unique role audiovisual media plays in expressing and shaping this imagineered middle class—its moral-psychic structure, (ir)rational self-management, and cultural-political identification.

My teaching reflects the intellectual architecture of a comparatist who navigates between the Euro-American and East Asian cultural traditions. Currently, I am teaching a course on classical Chinese literature and philosophy as well as a year-long graduate seminar, Reinterpreting and Redefining "Cultural China." I have also expanded my course offerings to include topics on global Chinese/Sinophone literature, and visual culture and social spaces in contemporary Chinese cities. These courses are developed to meet students' rising interest in globalizing China and popular culture in East Asia.