Lectures and Presentations

• (forthcoming) “Technologies of the Heart: Cryogenics and Revivification in Post-Cultural Revolution Science Popularization Lianhuanhua” for the panel Caricatures in Flux: Cartoons and Comics in Changing China, 1930s–1980s. Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS), Wednesday, 24 August 2022.

• “Food for Thought: Lianhuanhua as Spiritual Sustenance.” Reading (in) Chinese Comics workshop, READCHINA, University of Freiburg, 9 May 2022.

• “Change in Sinophone Comics.” Roundtable for the Sinophone Comics: A World of Changes symposium, organized by the Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies at University of Central Lancashire,
13 January 2022.

• “Impossible Futures: A Chinese Star Wars.” READCHINA, University of Freiburg, 9 November 2021.

• “Putting the ‘Text’ in Context: Liu Cixin’s Three Body Problem.”  Sutton Trust Summer School, University of Cambridge, 5 August 2021.

• “The Japanese Reach for Empire” and “The Sino-Japanese War.” Invited guest lectures for Introduction to East Asian Studies, taught by Mikael Adolphson, University of Cambridge, 1 & 3 February 2021.

• “Low Culture Fever: Anxiety and Ambition in Chinese Comics After Mao, 1976-1983.” Genre Fiction in Contemporary China, and its Reception in the West, Centre for New Chinese Writing, University of Leeds, 11 October 2019.

• “Chinese Literature in English Translation: Problems of Reception, Problems of Translation.” Invited guest lecture for CHIN 482A Translation’s Role in Chinese Literature as a World Literature, taught by Xiaowen Xu, UBC, 13 June 2018.

• “The “Arrival” of Jia Pingwa in World Literature: Translation and Interpretation.” Roundtable sponsored by the LLC Modern and Contemporary Chinese Forum for the MLA Annual Meeting in New York, 4-7 Jan. 2018.

• “The Passage of Mountains and Seas: Men and Beasts in Jia Pingwa’s Master of Songs” for the panel Traditions in Modern Chinese Literature and Cinema. Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association annual conference, Spokane, 12-14 October 2017.

• Invited roundtable for “Happy Dreams Global Launch Ceremony” sponsored by AmazonCrossing for the Beijing International Book Fair, 23 August 2017.

• “Zhang Shijie’s Fisher Boy: Transformative Nationalism in New China” for the panel Materia Manhuanica: Reading Chinese Cartoons, sponsored by the Huang Yao Foundation. Association of Asian Studies annual conference, Toronto, 16 March 2017.

• “Future Perfect: Ye Yonglie and the Birth of Contemporary Chinese Speculative Fiction.” Invited guest lecture for ALC 157 Contemporary Chinese Popular Culture, taught by Michael Berry, UCLA, 16 February 2017.

• “Turtles All the Way Down: Dr. Fix-it, Mr. Wang and the Origins of Chinese Comics.” Invited lecture for The Asian Art and Visual Cultures working group, Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley, 3 February 2017.

• Invited Q & A session with Yang Chao, director of Crosscurrent, Berlinale Silver Bear winner for best cinematography, YC International and Cheng Cheng Films, Cineplex Silvercity Riverport, Vancouver, 5 November 2016.

• “Ming Dynasty Looney Tunes: Reading Sun Wukong as Cartoon” for the panel The Construction of Xiyouji in the Sinographic Cosmopolis and Beyond at the Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference, Seattle, 1 April 2016.

• “Tan Zhongguo Dangdai Wenxue Fanyi: Zuozhe yu Jiyu” [The Translation of Contemporary Chinese Literature: Challenges and Opportunities]. Invited lecture for the Jia Pingwa Research Institute, Xi’an, 19 March  2016.

• “Manga Formosa: The Wild World of Taiwanese Comics.” Invited talk for the Centre for Chinese Research (CCR), University of British Columbia, 29 February 2016.

• “Lessons Learned: A discussion of a TA training program for graduate students.” Roundtable for the Society for Teaching in Higher Education (STHE) Conference, Vancouver, 18 June 2015.

• “Monkey Madness: The Many Faces of Sun Wukong.” Invited guest lecture for ASIA 342 Chinese Literature in Translation: The Vernacular Tradition, taught by Dr. Catherine Swatek, University of British Columbia, 28 January 2015.

• “Propaganda and memory in Li Kunwu and Philippe Ôtié’s graphic novel A Chinese Life” for the panel Resolving Cultural Identity in Comics at the International Comic Arts Forum, Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at the Ohio State University, 13-15 November 2014.

• “Border Crossings: Transnational Flows in Contemporary Chinese Comics.” Asian Studies Graduate Conference, University of British Columbia, 5 April 2014.

• “Drawing the Jin Ping Mei: Adaptations and Retellings.” Invited guest lecture for ASIA 441B Masterworks of Chinese Fiction and Drama in Translation, taught by Dr. Catherine Swatek, University of British Columbia, 31 March 2014.

• “Lost in Thailand: Nanyang Journeys.” Invited guest lecture for ASIA 355 Global Chinese Cinema, taught by Dr. Christopher Rea, University of British Columbia, 26 March 2014.

• “English Language Translation of Nie Jun’s Searching for the Sea.” 7th Annual Undergraduate and Ronald E. McNair Research Conference, Portland State University, Portland, 25 May 2010.