HRC 2025 Spring Conference Film Screening
Join us for an evening of thought-provoking film screenings at Duke Kunshan University’s Humanities Research Center!
When: Thursday, April 17, 18:00-19:30
Where: HUM Space (AB1075A)
We’ll be showcasing two impactful films: Coolie Pink and Green (2010, 20 mins), directed by Patricia Mohammed, and Comfort Women: One Last Cry (2013, 50 mins).
Enjoy the engaging films and snacks as part of the HRC’s 2025 Spring Conference.
Don’t miss out on this powerful evening—see you there!
Reading Group: Cultural Competence in Inclusive Education
Diversity, Equity, Inclusiveness, and Justice is an essential topic in academia. Despite its wide discussion in academia, at the practical level, it still poses a challenge for educators seeking to enhance their teaching practices. It is crucial to ensure that educational materials and curricula are inclusive, relevant, and engaging for all students while creating safe and inclusive learning environments.
Location: AB3033(3C)
Date & Time: April 17, 12pm-1pm
Lunch will be provided!
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Student Report on Reading Group for “Embracing Diversity: Developing Cultural Competence for Inclusive Education”
By Yaxuan Wang, Class of 2027
On Friday, March 28, 2025, DKU faculty, staff, and students gathered for our second reading group session on “Embracing Diversity: Developing Cultural Competence for Inclusive Education.” This event brought together participants from various backgrounds for a timely and engaging discussion on the experiences of LGBTQ+ communities, with a particular focus on the Chinese social and cultural context.
The session began with a brief overview of the week’s reading, which examined the current landscape for LGBTQ+ individuals in China.The article highlighted the rise in visibility and online activism alongside persistent challenges such as censorship, traditional family structures, and limited legal recognition. Participants reflected on how these overlapping dynamics shape the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ people in China, especially youth.
Facilitators Dr. Zhenjie Weng and Dr. Yanan Zhao led the group in an open and thoughtful conversation. Participants shared insights into how LGBTQ+ issues are discussed—or not discussed—within their own communities, and what kinds of language and representation are available to them. The discussion emphasized the importance of solidarity, active listening, and creating safer spaces where queer voices can be heard and respected.
The session concluded with a hands-on group activity, where participants were asked to rank five categories of policy recommendations from most to least important or feasible. The categories included: Legal and Policy Reforms; Public Awareness and Social Inclusion; Healthcare and Mental Health Services; Education and Employment Protections; and Support for Civil Society and Research. Each group compared their rankings and justified their choices based on real-world considerations, sparking further reflection on what meaningful change might look like in both local and national contexts.
The event was organized by Dr. Zhenjie Weng, Assistant Professor of English Language Education, and Dr. Yanan Zhao, Senior Lecturer of English for Academic Purposes, from the Language and Culture Center, and was sponsored by the Humanities Research Center. Student worker Yaxuan Wang contributed to the planning and success of the event.
Join Us for the Pre-HRC Spring Conference Gender Lecture Series
We’re excited to invite you to a series of dynamic sessions at the Pre-2025 Undergraduate Humanities Research Spring Conference: Gender and Sexuality. Prepare to immerse yourself in groundbreaking research, join vibrant discussions, and network with visionary scholars and peers!
• Speaker: Hyeyoung Woo, Professor of Sociology, Portland State University
• When: Tuesday, April 15, 2025, from 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM BJT
• Where: Lib 1113 on campus or Zoom (Meeting ID: 927 8924 0248)
Delve into the complexities of work–family balance, with insights from Korea and beyond.
• Where: Zoom (Meeting ID: 999 5172 1330)
Explore the evolving dialogue between digital identities and beauty standards.
• Speaker: Xiaofei Kang, Professor of Chinese Religion and History, George Washington University
• Where: Zoom (Meeting ID: 963 513 912)
Uncover the complex relationship between gender and religion in modern China.
• Speaker: Amy Adamczyk, Professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice
• When: Thursday, April 17, 2025, at 7:30 PM BJT
Gain a global perspective on reproductive rights and changing societal attitudes.
Mark your calendars and join us for these inspiring sessions—we can’t wait to explore these vital topics with you!
Women and Religious Questions in Modern China

The “religions question” and the “woman question” are both central to the discourse of Chinese modernity. This talk highlights a group of elderly and illiterate rural women in southwest China, who play a crucial role in shaping religious practices, ethnic identities, and local politics. Their story challenges male-dominated, textual oriented approaches to religious studies. By shifting the focus to the oral, informal, and marginalized, we place women at the center of Chinese religious life and advocate for deeper dialogues between gender and religious studies in the study of Chinese modernity.
Speaker’s Bio:
Dr. Xiaofei Kang is Professor of History and Religion at George Washington University, USA. She holds a Ph.D. in Chinese history from Columbia University. She teaches courses on religions in East Asia, and her research focuses on gender, ethnicity, and Chinese religions in traditional and modern China. She is the author of The Cult of the Fox: Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2006). She co-authored (with Donald S. Sutton) Contesting the Yellow Dragon: Ethnicity, Religion and the State in the Sino-Tibetan Borderland (Brill, 2016), and co-edited (with Jia Jinhua and Ping Yao) Gendering Chinese Religion: Subject, Identity and Body (SUNY Press, 2014). Her recent book, Enchanted Revolution: Ghosts, Shamans, and Gender Politics in China (Oxford, 2023) examines the intertwined discourses of religion, gender and the Chinese revolution. The book has been awarded the Joseph Levenson Book Award for 2005.
This event offers a unique opportunity to broaden our perspectives on the intersection of gender and religion in China. We look forward to your participation.
Joking, Swearing, Translating Two Days on Intercultural Translation
Have you ever wondered why some jokes don’t translate well into another language? Or how profanity in different languages and dialects can impart incisive wisdom or even express poetic beauty? Two Days on Intercultural Translation opens the gateway to the hilarious, tricky, and thought-provoking world of cross-cultural storytelling.
Two Days on Intercultural Translation invites you into the fascinating, hilarious, and sometimes tricky world of cross-cultural storytelling. Featuring award-winning translators and poets Jessica Cohen, Jennifer Kronovet, Ken Liu, Austin Woerner, and Jenny Xie, this two-day event explores the challenges and artistry of translating humor, swearing, and everything in between.
Get ready for insightful discussions where language gets messy, witty, and wonderfully complex!
Event Details
Day 2:
April 8 | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | HUM Space
A reading and Q&A featuring:
- Austin Woerner– Austin Woerner is a Chinese-English literary translator who taught for many years at Duke Kunshan and is currently a Teaching Fellow in Translation Studies at the University of Leeds.
- Jenny Xie– Jenny Xie is the author of two poetry collections, Eye Level and The Rupture Tense, finalists for the National Book Award. She teaches at Bard College, and lives in New York City. She is currently a Writer-in-Residence at NYU Shanghai.
April 8 | 6:00 – 7:30 PM | Performance Cafe
Ever wanted to teach people the funniest joke or the strangest swear from your language or dialect? Join our open mic and share the humor and spice with the world!
Hope to see you there!
Event Report – Women’s Literature and Representation: A Roundtable Discussion
Reported by Yuting Zeng, Class of 2026.
On the evening of March 24, 2025, a roundtable discussion was held under the theme of “Women’s Literature and Representation,” co-hosted by Yuqing Wang and Yuting Zeng. The event featured three invited speakers: Professor Wenting Ji, Professor Zairong Xiang, and Professor Don Snow, each contributing insights from their research on tanci fiction, mythological retellings, and regional songbooks respectively. The discussion drew over twenty attendees, including students and faculty, and created a space for critical thinking across disciplines.
The event opened with brief introductions to the panelists and the texts under discussion: Destiny of Rebirth 再生缘, The Legend of the White Snake 白蛇传, and Chaozhou Gece 潮州歌册. These works, though differing in form and origin, all center on women’s voices—whether through authorial agency, regional oral storytelling, or symbolic mythology.
Structured in three parts—contextual framing, gender and power, and narrative technique—the discussion touched on diverse issues: the preservation of women’s stories in oral traditions, cross-dressing and gender performance in female-authored fiction, and the metaphorical richness of The Legend of the White Snake across its multiple versions.
Professor Snow generously shared precious archival materials from Chaozhou Gece, offering participants a rare glimpse into the manuscript culture and oral storytelling traditions of southern China. He explained how these narrative songs—often composed and circulated by women—were preserved through oral performance and later published by local shufang (书坊, bookshops or print houses), providing an alternative, regional archive for women’s voices.
Professor Ji explored how cross-dressing in Destiny of Rebirth operates not just as a plot device, but as a lens for negotiating gender identity and social constraints. Her analysis emphasized the significance of female authorship in shaping narrative techniques that depart from male-dominated conventions in scholar-beauty romances.
Professor Xiang offered a concise introduction to queer theory, helping participants understand how queerness operates not only through characters or identities but also as a lens to read narrative structure, desire, and transformation. He then guided the audience through a range of versions of The Legend of the White Snake, from folk narratives and vernacular novels to stage plays and modern adaptations. By mapping the shifts across these forms, Professor Xiang demonstrated how the White Snake story has continually transformed to reflect evolving cultural and gender expectations.
The Q&A session invited further reflection on the texts’ relevance today, drawing links between premodern literary forms and ongoing questions of gender identity, representation, and cultural memory. This roundtable was not just a conversation about literature—it was an invitation to rethink narrative power, gendered histories, and the act of reading itself. Through intersecting perspectives, the event underscored how texts from the past continue to shape and challenge our understanding of women’s roles, both real and imagined.
To Grow Affinity with Whom? Shifting Modes of Engagement of Chinese Buddhism in East Africa
Location: LIB1117
Time: Mar. 31, 2025, 4:30-5:25pm & 5:30-7:00pm
Speaker: Yu Qiu
4:30pm workshop: Between Worlds, Beneath Gazes: Gendered Fieldwork in Afro-Chinese Encounters
5:30pm talk: To grow affinity with whom? Shifting modes of engagement of Chinese Buddhism in East Africa
The GSL Workshop Series is proud to present these events! Join to listen to Zhejiang University social anthropologist Yu Qiu, whose primary research focuses are: intimacy, migration, ethics, and identity politics, with fieldwork experience in Nigeria, Tanzania, and China. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Open Times, and Journal of African Cultural Studies.
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Pizza & drinks provided.
Between Worlds, Beneath Gazes: Gendered Fieldwork in Afro-Chinese Encounters
Time: March 31, 4:30 PM
Location: LIB1117
Speaker: Yu Qiu
The GSL Workshop Series is proud to present this event! Join the talk for Yu Qiu, a social anthropologist at Zhejiang University. Her research focuses on intimacy, migration, ethics, and identity politics, with fieldwork experience in Nigeria, Tanzania, and China. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Open Times, and Journal of African Cultural Studies.
Scan to Sign Up!
Pizzas & drinks provided.
Joking, Swearing, Translating: Two Days on Intercultural Translation
Have you ever wondered why some jokes don’t translate well into another language? Or how profanity in different languages and dialects can impart incisive wisdom or even express poetic beauty? Two Days on Intercultural Translation opens the gateway to the hilarious, tricky, and thought-provoking world of cross-cultural storytelling.
Two Days on Intercultural Translation invites you into the fascinating, hilarious, and sometimes tricky world of cross-cultural storytelling. Featuring award-winning translators and poets Jessica Cohen, Jennifer Kronovet, Ken Liu, Austin Woerner, and Jenny Xie, this two-day event explores the challenges and artistry of translating humor, swearing, and everything in between.
Get ready for insightful discussions where language gets messy, witty, and wonderfully complex!
Event Details
Day 1: March 28 | 10:00 – 11:00 AM (BJT) | Zoom
Zoom ID: 382 860 0131
A roundtable discussion featuring:
- Jessica Cohen – Hebrew literary translator, International Booker Prize winner (2017), Guggenheim Fellow (2021).
- Jennifer Kronovet – Translator of Chinese and Yiddish poetry, Editor of Circumference Books.
Moderated by Professor Yitzhak Lewis.
This is a great opportunity to gain insight into the world of intercultural translation from some of the most accomplished professionals in the field. Stay tuned for more details on Day 2!
Hope to see you there!