Graduate students

Dan Huang

Dan Huang is a Ph.D. student in the Department of East Asian Studies at McGill University. Her research centers on early modern Chinese literature, with particular attention to the intersections of writing, gender, materiality, and affect. She holds a B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature from South China Normal University, an M.A. in History from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and an M.A. in History from the University of Chicago. Beyond her studies, she enjoys music, cooking, tennis, bouldering, and spending time in nature.

Jiaqi Ma

Jiaqi MA is a Ph.D. student at the Department of East Asian Studies of McGill University. She received her bachelor’s degree in architecture from China University of Petroleum (East China) and her master’s degree in architecture history, Theory, and Heritage at Southeast University. Her research interests mainly shed light on ancient Chinese architecture, funerary art, material culture, and socio-cultural communications across East Asia. With a particular focus on nomadic ethnic groups in Northern China and Northeast Asia, she investigates how complex mechanisms played out in various cultural exchanges to express their social and cultural identities and religious beliefs in the netherworld.

Jiarong Wang

Jiarong Wang is a Ph.D. student interested primarily in gender studies and visual arts in contemporary China and Japan. Prior to joining the EAS Department at McGill, she worked with Prof. Ayako Kano, Linda Chance, and Hsiao-wen Cheng at the University of Pennsylvania during her M.A. Her current project is about "Global Japan," the communication between Japanese cultures and other countries, especially gender representations in Japanese anime for Chinese audiences, and the roles of these representations in developing queer identities of Generation Z and the Fourth Love community. Her research looks at the discourse around queer bodies, and the intersection between identity, modernity, and technology.

Biao Zhang

Biao Zhang is a PhD student at the Department of East Asian Studies of McGill University. Biao received his Bachelor’s degree in Archaeology at Shandong University, and a first Master’s degree in Buddhist Studies at the University of Hong Kong, and completed a second Master’s degree at Department of East Asian Studies, McGill University. He studies Chinese Buddhist art and visual cultures from the eighth to the fourteenth century CE.

Jingru Chen

Jingru Chen (she/they) is an MA student in the Department of East Asian Studies at McGill University, where she previously received a double major BA in East Asian Studies and History. Her research interests include Qing gender history, social history, and legal history, and she now mainly focuses on the complex dynamics among state-building projects, lineage institutions, and sexual morality. Outside of school, she enjoys watching films and reading historical letters.

Chuanqi Ding

Chuanqi (approximate English pronunciation: chwan-chee or chwan-tsee) Ding is an MA student at the Department of East Asian Studies in McGill University, with a double-major BA in Philosophy and Literature & Critical Theory (Cultural Theory stream; major associated with the Centre of Comparative Literature) from University of Toronto.

Chuanqi’s current research project examines otaku theory and sits at the intersection of Marxism, critical theory, and queer theory. It focuses on how the Chinese otaku/zhai communities uses anime criticisms and derivative creations to articulate politics and imagine its alternatives. In general, Chuanqi is interested in any intellectual project that concerns, tries to apply, or could potentially summon what Walter Benjamin calls the “weak messianic power”.

Outside of academics, Chuanqi’s interests include watching other people watch anime, writing obscure poetry, listening to French impressionist composers, and being pedantic.

Yan Lang

Yan Lang (she/her) is a MA student in the Department of East Asian Studies at McGill University. Her research interests include Japanese and Chinese media, popular culture, transnational fandom and their intersections with sexuality and nation. She holds a BA in East Asian Studies from McGill University. Beyond school, she enjoys cooking, reading manga, and going to karaoke, alone or with friends.

Kimberly Yang

Kimberly (she/her) is an MA student in the Department of East Asian Studies at McGill University, where she previously completed a Joint Honours BA in Philosophy & East Asian Studies. Her primary research project explores digital transnational religious networks — particularly Mazu worship — across Sino-Southeast Asian communities. Her many other interests include religion & emerging media (such as AI, VR, social media), more-than-human worlds, phenomenology, the politics of religion & memory, East & Southeast Asian diaspora, antiracism, and community-capacity building.

When not buried in endless papers and readings, you can find Kimberly involving herself in religious & spiritual programming for the student community (shoutout MORSL McGill!), attempting to knit long overdue sweater requests, or bopping her head endlessly to jazz around campus. Feel free to stop her and have a heartfelt conversation if you'd like!