Shuyu Kong
Areas of interest
Chinese literary and cultural studies (modern and contemporary), literature and art in socialist China, Chinese artists in Europe in the early 20th century, and Sinophone literature and cinema.
Courses
Future courses may be subject to change.
Education
PhD, Asian Studies, University of British Columbia (1997)
MA, Comparative Literature, Peking University (1991)
BA, Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University (1988)
Biography
Shuyu Kong was trained in literary studies but her research interests have expanded to encompass cinema, mass media, and visual art. She has published several books and numerous articles on contemporary Chinese literary culture and popular media, as well as ethnic Chinese language media in Canada. Her current projects include co-editing a conference volume on global cultural and artistic exchanges in socialist China; editing & co- translating Zheng Shengtian’s book Art Dialogues between Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century; and a collaborative study of early 20th century Chinese women writers and artists in Europe, with scholars in China and France. She also actively explores ways to bring humanities research to broader audiences through bilingual creative writing and documentary film.
Shuyu has taught at SFU since 2008, with a joint appointment in Global Humanities and the Global Asia Program (formerly the Asia-Canada Program). She teaches China-specific courses within the fields of literature and culture, from 18th century to the present, as well as Asian-Canadian Studies courses with a focus on cultural activism. She has acted as Co-Director of the David Lam Centre for International Communication since 2019. Before coming to SFU, she taught at the University of Alberta and University of Sydney, Australia.
Shuyu Kong's Selected Publications
Books
- Art and Modernism in Socialist China: Unexplored International Encounters, 1949-1979, edited by Shuyu Kong, Julia Andrews and Shengtian Zheng, London & New York: Rutledge, 2024, 248 pages
- Sino-Mexican Art and Cultural Exchanges in the Twentieth Century, by Shengtian Zheng, edited and translated by Shuyu Kong and Colin S. Hawes, with an introduction by Shuyu Kong. Amherst: Cambria Press, 2024, 342 pages
- 故事照亮旅程 （Stories Illuminating the Journey）北京：三联书店，Beijing: Joint Publishing, 2020, 345 pages
- Popular Media, Social Emotion and Public Discourse in Contemporary China, London & New York: Routledge, 2014, 154 pages
- Beijing Women: Stories by Wang Yuan, translated by Colin S Hawes and Shuyu Kong, with an introduction by Shuyu Kong. Portland: MerwinAsia Publishing, 2014,166 pages
- Consuming Literature: Best Sellers and the Commercialization of Literary Production in Contemporary China. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2005, 241pages
Recent Publications
- “The Politics of Landscape Painting: Three International Art Exhibitions in 1970s China” in Art and Modernism in Socialist China: Unexplored International Encounters, 1949-1979, edited by Shuyu Kong, Julia Andrews and Shengtian Zheng, London & New York: Rutledge, 2024. 90-113
- “Between Undercurrent and Mainstream: Hand-copied Literature and Unofficial Culture during and after the Cultural Revolution”，Asian Studies Review, Volume 44 Issue 2, 2020. 239-257
- “Portrait of An Artist as Historian: On Shen Jiawei and History Painting”， YiShu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Volume 18, Number 5, 2019. 6-22