Calvin Hui
Associate Professor of Chinese Studies; Chinese Studies Program Director; Freeman Internships in East Asia Faculty Director
Office:
Washington Hall 231
Email:
[[kchui]]
Calvin Hui is an Associate Professor of Chinese Studies in the Department of Modern Languages & Literatures at the College of William & Mary. He received his PhD in Literature at Duke University and studied with Rey Chow, Fredric Jameson, and Michael Hardt. His research and teaching focus on modern Chinese humanities (film, media, and literature), Chinese diaspora, critical theory, and cultural studies, with particular emphases on Marxist theory, gender and sexuality studies, and post-colonial and transnational studies. He has received a number of research fellowships, including a China-U.S. Scholars Program (CUSP) fellowship (2023), an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellowship (2019), and Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange Research Grant (2020) and Scholar Grant (2016).
Hui's book, titled The Art of Useless: Fashion, Media, and Consumer Culture in Contemporary China, was published by Columbia University Press in 2021. Click here. He also researches China's "shanzhai" (copycat) cultures, such as art and architecture, as well as JIA Zhangke’s cinema. His publications have appeared in Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Verge: Studies in Global Asias, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture (Web Publications), Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, The Cold War and Asian Cinemas, and The Changing Landscape of China's Consumerism, and so on.
Since coming to William & Mary, he has offered such courses as "CHIN 100 Fashion, Media, and Chinese Consumer Culture," "CHIN 150 Brand New China," "CHIN 220: Chinese Popular Culture," "CHIN 250 Introduction to Chinese Cultural Studies," "CHIN 360: Introduction to Chinese Cinema," "CHIN 428 Advanced Seminar in Chinese (Topic: Fake Globalization, Counterfeit China)," and "AMES/APIA 385 East Asia Think Tank." These interdisciplinary courses fulfill the requirements of the Chinese major and university curricula. In 2024-25, Hui serves as faculty director of the Freeman Internships in East Asia.
He has directed an honors thesis, entitled "Cooperative Comrades: Contract Marriages and the Chinese LGBT Movement," which focuses on fake marriages between gay men and lesbians in contemporary China. In addition, he has supervised such independent study projects as "China Opening Up: Sex Cultures and Politics since 1978," "Copycat China," and "Artificial Intelligence, New Media, and 21st century China." He welcomes students' inquiry about pursuing honors thesis or independent study in the following areas: (1) The Chinese middle class and cultures; (2) U.S.-China cultural exchange; (3) consumer cultures and counterfeit cultures; (4) migrant labor issues; (5) environmental concerns; and (6) Chinese diaspora (ethnicity) and the Sinophone (language).
Calvin Hui has organized several Chinese Major Forums to showcase his students' innovative research projects.
