Class of 2021

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Gary Leung received his Bachelor’s degree in Government from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with double minors in Statistics and Philosophy. At Yale, he studied, among other things, Chinese politics and social science research methods. After graduation, he will continue his graduate studies at Yale as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science.

Jingwen Li graduated from Renmin University in 2018 with a major in Communication and a minor in Philosophy. At Yale, she has focused her studies on History of Science and Medicine. Her current research is on media technologies and sensory impairment. After graduation she will pursue her Ph.D. in the History of Science program at Princeton.

Denise Looi received her BA in International Relations and Music from Tufts University in 2020. At Yale, she was a part of the East Asian Studies program, focusing on Chinese politics, foreign policy and civil-military relations. After graduation, she will return to the Republic of Singapore Air Force as an Air Warfare Officer.

Dylan Siegel received his B.A. in History from U.C. Berkeley in 2016. After college, Dylan spent time as a grant writer at a Southern California nonprofit, moved to Kyoto, Japan for a language program, and worked as a writer and producer at a well-known YouTuber’s news production studio in Los Angeles. At Yale, Dylan has focused on disaster and memorialization in modern Japanese history. After graduating, Dylan hopes to find ways to make academic and intellectual thought more accessible and digestible to a wide audience through new media.

Mindy Su received a B.A. with honors in Political Science from National University of Singapore in 2017. She then worked for the Asia Research Institute, NUS as a research assistant. At Yale, Mindy has focused her studies on modern Japanese and Chinese history. In summer, she will be studying Japanese language with the Inter-University Center, Yokohama on a CEAS grant. She will start her doctoral program in History at Yale next term.

Brian Yuhan Wang, a native of Shenyang, received his Honours Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Montreal in 2018. At Yale, he explored a variety of topics ranging from foot-binding to Chinese anarchism, and wrote his master’s thesis on short stories in late Qing China. Brian plans to work in Canada after graduation and pursue a doctorate degree sometime later.

Karen Wang is fueled by curiosity and the pursuit of critical history. She has recently completed a bachelor’s degree in Arts Management (Specialist) and Art History (Major) at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include early modern woodblock prints and 20th-century Chinese visual culture. In addition to her academic life, Karen has accumulated hands-on experience in curating photographs taken before and during the Mao era in art museums in China. A true lover of wine, Karen has passed the WSET Level 3 exam with distinction in Toronto in 2016.

People type: 
MA Student

Nongyu Duan (December ‘23) was born in Linfen, Shanxi Province, China. She received her bachelor’s degrees at Renmin University of China, majoring in international relations and journalism. Her research interest lies in the intersection of domestic politics and international relations. Her current research mainly focuses on how governments in East Asian countries, especially China and Japan, mobilize and demobilize the society during international crises. She’s also a freelance writer contributing to several media, including Southern People Weekly, covering topics relevant to international politics. Some of her articles are closely connected to her interests in documentary photography and non-fiction writing. In her spare time, she loves staying close to nature by hiking and cycling.

Weining Fang obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Financial Management with a minor in Global History from Nankai University, China. Her recent research interests focus on popular culture and social stratification in China, in particular how people’s perception has been manipulated by cultural phenomena in the workplace, entertainment industry, etc. Weining has also been working as a research assistant at Cohen Lab at Stanford and at CAMLab at Harvard. She also completed several internships in major content platforms in China, including xiaohongshu, kwai and bilibili.

Carrie Jiang is academically interested in combining film and media theories with East Asian cultures, particularly the relationship between East Asian directors’ cinematic expressions and their respective sociocultural contexts. She studied film and media as an undergraduate student at Swarthmore College, where she researched world cinema, Chinese diasporic contemporary cinema and Japanese film history. Being born and raised in Shanghai, China and having a language proficiency in Japanese, she is dedicated to learning more about the interconnectedness, similarities and discrepancies between these two cultures. Of course, she is also excited about embracing other cultures, theories and histories while studying at Yale. She loves watching TV shows, dramas and experimenting on new cooking recipes when she has free time. She is also currently learning Korean out of personal interest.

Ruiyuan Li received her bachelor’s degree from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, majoring in Public Administration and also completing minor courses in International Economic Law. During her undergraduate period, she studied a series of topics concerning Chinese hukou system with related social and economic problems, thus attracted by unique state-society relations in contemporary China. After graduation, she took internships in several institution or companies with focus on data policies for digital governments and cities, which sparked her thoughts on the trends and role of technology in Chinese and international politics and administration. She enjoys spending her leisure time in history and culture museums, as well as watching movies and TV.

Da Ling received her B.A. degree from China Foreign Affairs University, majoring in Japanese. During her junior year, she also studied at Waseda University as an exchange student. Her current academic interests include Japanese literature and culture, Japanese film, animation and manga. She also likes reading books about comparative literature and continental philosophy. What’s more, she is a postmodernist both mentally and physically. Outside of academics, Da Ling has been a big fan of rock and roll music since a very young age; Patti Smith and Alanis Morissette are two of her favorite singers. During her leisure time, she likes going to live houses, museums and galleries. She is also a fan of Yohji Yamamoto, a famous Japanese designer.

Kaixiao Liu received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Fudan University. His academic interests include political behavior, state building and the political economy of development, with a regional focus on China. He hopes to combine inspiring ideas with innovative empirical methods to produce exciting research in his master studies. Born and raised in Guangzhou, Guangdong, Kaixiao loves eating Cantonese Dim-sum and cuisines. He also loves playing soccer and basketball. His favorite player is Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James. Kaixiao has practiced violin for more than twenty years, and he used to be a member of several youth symphony orchestras in Gaungzhou, Shanghai and California. He participated in more than fifty concerts in different countries including China, Germany and the US.

Andrew Nguy is interested in the development of Chinese Buddhist liturgies, especially in the late-imperial period. As an Asian Studies major at Pomona College, he joined translation projects and volunteer programs at local Buddhist organizations. Andrew also contributed to didactic panels on poetic names of garden landmarks while working as a curatorial intern at the Chinese Garden at The Huntington Library. During a semester on the Associated Kyoto Program, he began learning Japanese tea ceremony which inspired his Fulbright project on contemporary tea culture in southeast China. Outside of research, Andrew enjoys practicing calligraphy and guqin, watching anime, and drinking tea. 

Aika Sato spent most of her formative years in the two cities she calls home, Shanghai and Tokyo. She grew up witnessing the past haunting the present in different parts of East Asia: ultranationalism, antagonism, and discrimination. Such upbringing fueled her interest in historical reconciliation.

She earned dual BAs in International Liberal Studies and Political Science from Waseda University and the National University of Singapore (NUS) respectively. Over the past four years, Aika has put the ideals into practice by both embarking on her own fieldwork, and learning in the journalism industry through her experiences at the Japan Times and Reuters. For example, she flew to Nanjing to interview survivors of the Nanjing Massacre, and to South Korea to talk to the former “comfort women”. That work has had a profound impact on her, both intellectually and personally. Aika went on to pursue an MA in China Studies at Yenching Academy of Peking University. Alongside other like-minded friends at Yenching, she co-founded the Yenching Academy East Asian Studies (YCAEAS).

Her research interests include memory, feminist theory, gender and sexuality, and history of Japanese colonialism/occupation in Northeast and Southeast Asia. Her most recent project has been focusing on the “comfort women” history.

Academic interests aside, she loves anything that makes her feel alive: feminist movement, aesthetics/fashion (and the philosophy behind it), music playing/listening, yoga, poem writing etc.

Candice Snowden was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but calls South Florida home. She majored in East Asian Studies at Wellesley College, ultimately focusing on minority identities in contemporary China and the state’s differing policies toward them. As a graduating senior, she earned the Wellesley-Yenching Fellowship that allowed her to teach at Nanjing Normal University for a year. She went on to teach at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine while earning her Master’s degree in International Education at Concordia University Irvine. For her Master’s thesis she surveyed Chinese college students’ perceptions of Russia, Japan, and the United States. At Yale, Candice hopes to continue studying identity in contemporary China, with a focus on generational identity, student movements, and popular culture. Outside of the classroom, Candice is an avid fan of figure skating, gymnastics, and cinema.

Wen Rui Tai was born in Hong Kong in 1998, and was since raised in Beijing. She received her B.A. from Smith College for English Literature and Theatre Studies. Her interest in East Asian Studies was first sparked during her junior year abroad at the University of Oxford, where she analyzed Voltaire’s 1753 adaptation of The Orphan of Zhao. She has also written on China’s cultural policy during the Cultural Revolution, ethnographic film and Postmodernist consumer culture in Japan.

At present, she is mainly interested in studying the epistemic divide between China and “the West” in a globalizing (or, perhaps, de-globalizing) world, and the role that China’s domestic realities might play in shaping its image abroad.  

Having deferred her studies for a year, she has gained valuable experience working closely with various Chinese companies and NGOs, and done field research in China’s rural area, which she hopes would contextualize and inform her studies at Yale. 

Additionally, like she wrote a year ago in her pre-deferral bio, she is still a fan of biking, Samuel Becket and Harry Styles, but her affair with sundried tomato and basil Wheat Thins is, alas, a thing of the pandemic past.

Anqi Yan was born and raised in Shenzhen, China and received her B.A. degree from Haverford College, majoring in Growth and Structure of Cities (which explores topics in anthropology, political science, urban planning, history, etc.). Her primary interest lies in civil society engagement in the political realm in China and how this engagement structures people’s interactions with the government and defines citizenship. From 2019 to 2020, Anqi worked as a part-time research assistant at Sun Yat Sen University and received the Hanna Holborn Gray research fellowship to study a water governance project that heavily co-opted civil society organizations, in Guangdong, China. Anqi looks forward to refining her research skills and exploring more exciting research topics in the field of Chinese politics and political anthropology at Yale. She also loves cooking and reading non-fictions.

Sisi Yang cares about gender equality, the environment, exploitation of labor, and migrants’ rights. Lately, she has conducted a half-year fieldwork in Hong Kong, exploring how Indonesian domestic workers deploy unusual forms of tactics to occupy Victoria Park, a major park in the heart of Hong Kong, on their Sunday day off. At the same time, she initiates a project to teach Cantonese lessons to Indonesian and Filipino domestic workers in collaboration with Mission for Migrant Workers.  

Sisi has a background in Linguistics and Philosophy from her undergraduate study at Fudan University in Shanghai. She commits herself to the path of being an anthropologist after her one-year postgraduate study of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She also develops a strong interest in historical approaches when she writes about the history of Hong Kong migrants. Therefore, the interdisciplinary nature of the East Asian Studies program at Yale will surely accommodate her interests and boost her academic progress.   

Nurtured by the mountains and seas in Hong Kong, Sisi enjoys outdoor sports such as hiking and kayaking. She appreciates cooking as an art of creativity and bonding. She is also learning illustration because she believes visual arts to be powerful ways of expression. 

Tiffany Yang

Xinyue Zhang is interested in the social and cultural history of 20th century China, with allied interests in intellectual history, political and social thought, and science and technology studies. She graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in History and Social Studies and a minor in East Asian Studies. Drawing on a variety of written and visual materials, her honors thesis explored gender discourse and urban women’s experiences in pre-WWII China, with a focus on how Chinese women reconceptualized the meaning of the family, the public sphere, and the nation-state in the crucial window between 1934 and 1937. Outside of academics, she is an amateur translator, has internship experience in public interest law, and enjoys sipping a good cup of tea. 

Zhelun Zhou was born and raised in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. He went to Colgate University for his undergraduate degree. He double majored in History and Philosophy & Religion Joint Major (PnR). During his junior year spring semester, he researched in London’s the National Archives and the British Library as part of Colgate History Department’s London Study Group, meanwhile traveling around the UK and the continental Europe.

Currently he is interested in a wide range of topics, including the social, cultural, and intellectual history of modern China, the question of religion and secularism in modern China, the history of Hong Kong and its relationship to China during the 20th Century, ethnic relations in China, and the history of gender and sexuality in China. Zhelun wishes to explore and refine a more specific research subject during his M.A. study and plans to go for a History Ph.D. degree afterwards.

Zhelun likes to read books relating to subjects of history, politics, philosophy, religion, and popular sciences, as well as fictions and poetry. He is also learning Japanese as of now. During his leisure time, he likes watching movies and Japanese animations, playing NBA 2K Video Games, drinking teas and hiking trails and mountains. As a museum nerd, he served as a research assistant during his undergraduate year for Chenango County Historical Society at Norwich, NY, to help with their exhibition planning and curating.  

Ethan Barkalow began studying East Asia while an undergraduate student at Bowdoin College where he took courses in Japanese and Chinese history, studied Japanese language, and wrote an honors thesis on environmental history in northern Japan. He majored in History and Environmental Studies and minored in Japanese. After graduating from Bowdoin, his unyielding interest in Japanese language, history, and environmental studies inspired him to move to Japan where he taught English in elementary schools for two years as a Japan Exchange and Teaching Program participant. At Yale, he researched the marine environment in twentieth-century East Asia, with special attention to seaweed cultivation in Tokyo Bay and colonial Korea. He endeavored to highlight linked histories of coastal zones in the Japanese archipelago and the Korean peninsula. He aimed to bring the natural world to the fore in entangled histories of empire, colonial subjectivity, capitalist expansion, and traditional livelihoods. Outside of his academic interests, Ethan enjoys bluegrass, folk, and choral music and is an avid hiker. 

Jonathan Chan is interested in the interactions between the East Asian diaspora and East Asia, especially China and Korea, with a particular interest in language, religion, and literature. Born in New York to a Malaysian father and South Korean mother, he was raised in Singapore. He received a BA in English from the University of Cambridge where he chaired the Cambridge Chinese Christian Fellowship and Decolonise English Campaign, wrote a column for student newspaper Varsity, and sang in the gospel choir. He spent a summer as an international scholar at Tsinghua University and has acquired professional experience at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an impact investing firm, and various non-profit organizations. He is also active as a writer and editor of essays and poetry. His dissertation on literary depictions of migration within Asia, centered on the poetry of Zakir Hossain Khokan and Shromik Monir and the novels of Min Jin Lee and Tash Aw, was published in Synergy: The Journal of Contemporary Asian Studies.

Chen Jingwen was raised in Hunan Province in China and received her B.A. degree from the University of Hong Kong. She majored in English studies and translation. During her undergraduate studies, she became interested in the translation of Chinese poetry and contemporary Chinese novels. In her free time, she enjoys watching films and singing.

Siming Chen was born and raised in Shenzhen, China, and received her bachelor’s degree at Tufts University with a double major in International Literary & Visual Studies and French. She is interested in topics such as diasporic experience in Chinese modern art and literature, and she wants to explore comparative methods in her future studies of modernism. Siming is also passionate for language studies and is currently striving to improve her proficiency in Japanese. She is an amateur of violin in her spare time. 

Jiarong (Vincent) Fan was born and raised in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China. He received his bachelor’s degree at Emory University with double majors in Film & Media and East Asian Studies. He used to be a member of Halle Institute of Global Research at Emory and co-founder of Emory Global China Summit. Currently he is interested in a variety of topics including culture (especially film and media), industry policies and strategies in Japan, transregional diplomatic relations in East Asia, as well as ethnic problems in China. Vincent is also passionate about language studies and is currently striving to improve his fluency in Japanese. In his spare time, he loves watching Japanese and Korean films and TV series, as well as reading scholarly publications related to East Asia. He also enjoys photography and making short films. 

Xiaofan Han was born and raised in Wuhan, China. He majored in History and Economics as an undergraduate student at William & Mary. He is interested in communism in the 20th century as well as how historical narratives and collective memories of past events are constructed and contested in contemporary China. He has worked at AidData, a think tank at William & Mary, where he examined the infrastructure projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Outside of academics, he likes to think about security issues in East Asia like an armchair admiral. He is a travel enthusiast, a food lover, and a mediocre table tennis player. He likes Wuhan-style Shaomai, and he believes that Cantonese Shumai is for the weak.

Tyler Hayward was born in Emporia, Kansas but grew up in El Paso, Texas and attended the University of Houston for his undergraduate studies. There he majored in Economics and Chinese Studies, and received a minor in Phronêsis (politics and ethics) and a certification in quantitative economics. He completed his junior year in China studying Mandarin Chinese and Chinese culture at Peking University in Beijing, China as a recipient of the Chinese Government Scholarship. Despite being interested by all things related to China, he is primarily interested in studying the political economy of China, with a special emphasis on the development of China’s trading relationships, its interregional differences in development, and its form of state capitalism. Outside of school, Tyler enjoys walking, running, and hiking as it allows him to see the world at a slower pace than he would through the window of a plane, train, or automobile.

Sinclair Im

Suiyun Pan, born and raised in Hangzhou, China, earned his B.A. degree with Highest Honors in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During his undergraduate years, Suiyun was fascinated with both Classics (namely, ancient Greek and Roman literature) and classical Chinese literature, evident in his senior thesis that delves into a comparison between Homer’s Helen of Troy and Bai Juyi’s Yang Yuhuan. At Yale, he continued his exploration of classical Chinese poetry, focusing on gender, aesthetics, narrativity, and philosophical thoughts, hopefully from an East-West comparative angle. Meanwhile, Suiyun is passionate about bringing Chinese pop-music to the stage of classical literature studies to build a new bridge between Chinese modernity and tradition. In his spare time, Suiyun enjoys watching movies and TV series, listening to music, singing, cooking, driving around aimlessly, and sometimes playing basketball and soccer as an amateur. His idol is Leslie Cheung, a Hong Kong artist (even a cultural icon of the city) renowned for his splendid songs and formidable films.

Brenda Tan graduated from the London School of Economics, majoring in International Relations. During her undergraduate years, she spent a summer at Peking University and took several classes on East and Southeast Asian international relations, as well as Chinese history. Her graduation thesis examined reasons for the Duterte administration’s polycephalous China foreign policies in the South China Sea. Since graduating in 2020, she has spent her gap year learning Japanese and gaining work experiences at startups and in innovation. She is currently interested in the social history and material cultures of China, and hopes to adopt interdisciplinary approaches to deepen her understanding of the region. In her free time, Brenda enjoys water sports, exploring museums and playing video games.

Sabrina Williams was raised in Northern California and received her B.A. degree from Northwestern University in 2018, where she majored in Political Science. During her undergraduate studies, she became interested in the political activities of minority groups in Japan both contemporarily and historically. In 2016, Sabrina received a research grant and spent the summer in Japan studying the youth protest group S.E.A.L.D.s, Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy. In Tokyo, she interviewed activists, students, professors, journalists, and lobbyists to gain a deeper understanding of the movement, and the circumstances that led to its development. After graduating from Northwestern, Sabrina worked in Federal consulting for three years, developing an in-depth understanding of the business and technical worlds while having the opportunity to travel and teach internationally.  At Yale, Sabrina continued to focus her research on the experiences and political developments of minority groups in Japan in the 20th century. In her free time, Sabrina enjoys playing the flute, watching films, and visiting museums.

Xuechen Yang’s research ranges from early to medieval Chinese literature. He has been writing on textual phenomena, such as, as he named, the ‘anonymous character’ in the Zhuzi discourses and historical narratives of early China. He is interested in the vague image, and in particular, image as a way of creating tensions in both narrative and lyrical texts. At Yale, Xuechen studied the vague part of the text exerted an influence on the whole picture and why this “convention” failed to mature into what people call tradition. As a believer in the received text, something he considers as the general “classics”, Xuechen explores the textual structure and its features through religious reading. Xuechen is also the co-founder of Shiretoko Academy. He loves reading Kawabata Yasunari and Marcel Proust. 

Chloe Young graduated from the University of Oxford, with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. In her time at Oxford, she especially enjoyed classes in political theory which allowed her to take a cross-disciplinary approach to real-life problems and wrote her finals thesis on the egalitarian implications of online shaming sanctions. She was also a Director at the Oxford University Asia Pacific Society and President of the Oxford University Malaysian and Singaporean Students’ Association. She spent her year at Yale making the most of the interdisciplinary nature of the MA in East Asan Studies. Her academic interests include Chinese politics and contemporary issues in Asia.  Besides academic interests, Chloe is a huge foodie and a casual vinyl record collector. Upon graduation, she will be returning to Singapore to serve in the Singapore Public Service. 

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Gary Leung received his Bachelor’s degree in Government from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with double minors in Statistics and Philosophy. At Yale, he studied, among other things, Chinese politics and social science research methods. After graduation, he will continue his graduate studies at Yale as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science.

Jingwen Li graduated from Renmin University in 2018 with a major in Communication and a minor in Philosophy. At Yale, she has focused her studies on History of Science and Medicine. Her current research is on media technologies and sensory impairment. After graduation she will pursue her Ph.D. in the History of Science program at Princeton.

Denise Looi received her BA in International Relations and Music from Tufts University in 2020. At Yale, she was a part of the East Asian Studies program, focusing on Chinese politics, foreign policy and civil-military relations. After graduation, she will return to the Republic of Singapore Air Force as an Air Warfare Officer.

Dylan Siegel received his B.A. in History from U.C. Berkeley in 2016. After college, Dylan spent time as a grant writer at a Southern California nonprofit, moved to Kyoto, Japan for a language program, and worked as a writer and producer at a well-known YouTuber’s news production studio in Los Angeles. At Yale, Dylan has focused on disaster and memorialization in modern Japanese history. After graduating, Dylan hopes to find ways to make academic and intellectual thought more accessible and digestible to a wide audience through new media.

Mindy Su received a B.A. with honors in Political Science from National University of Singapore in 2017. She then worked for the Asia Research Institute, NUS as a research assistant. At Yale, Mindy has focused her studies on modern Japanese and Chinese history. In summer, she will be studying Japanese language with the Inter-University Center, Yokohama on a CEAS grant. She will start her doctoral program in History at Yale next term.

Brian Yuhan Wang, a native of Shenyang, received his Honours Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Montreal in 2018. At Yale, he explored a variety of topics ranging from foot-binding to Chinese anarchism, and wrote his master’s thesis on short stories in late Qing China. Brian plans to work in Canada after graduation and pursue a doctorate degree sometime later.

Karen Wang is fueled by curiosity and the pursuit of critical history. She has recently completed a bachelor’s degree in Arts Management (Specialist) and Art History (Major) at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include early modern woodblock prints and 20th-century Chinese visual culture. In addition to her academic life, Karen has accumulated hands-on experience in curating photographs taken before and during the Mao era in art museums in China. A true lover of wine, Karen has passed the WSET Level 3 exam with distinction in Toronto in 2016.

Raised in Seattle, Connor Boyle received his B.A. in Computer Science and Chinese Language & Culture at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. During his undergraduate studies, he developed an interest in Chinese literature, Islamic thought, and the Arabic language. He ultimately combined the three interests in his senior capstone paper, in which he analyzed author Zhang Chengzhi’s fusion of Maoist ideology and Sufi historiography in his 1991 book History of the Soul 心灵史. At Yale, he studied the development of early Sinophone Islamic thought. His research interests are motivated by a desire to challenge the cultural, civilizational, ethnic, and religious divisions imposed on the pre-modern world by much of contemporary historiography.

Yi Feng was born and raised in Chengdu, a vibrant city in Southwestern China. As an undergraduate majoring in History at Sichuan University, she has written a series of papers with a wide range of historical topics, including the music control in Nazi Germany, the reforms of local government in the late Qing Dynasty, and discussion about eugenics in the May Fourth Movement. But one of her major concerns is how state policies influences individuals’ daily lives.

Yi was also deeply attracted by anthropology and sociology when she was studying at Columbia University as a visiting student. After reading ethnographies concerning contemporary China, she has been attempting to analyze history as well as her life from anthropological and sociological perspectives. She worked for an NGO aiming at ameliorating educational inequality in China and performed some fieldwork in several primary and secondary schools in Sichuan Province. Because of these experiences, inequality and social stratification have become her academic interests as well.

Outside the academic field, she is a big fan of Agatha Christie and Ellery Queen, and she enjoys playing the piano.

Born and raised in Singapore, Qian Xuan Goh is a government scholar that aspires to be a good educator in the future. She obtained her B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature with a second major in Translation Studies from Fudan University, China. During her undergraduate studies, Qian Xuan led the Shanghai Singaporean students’ association and is also the first international student president of the school’s student union.

To her, China is a breathtakingly-amazing civilization that never fails to surprise the world. Qian Xuan’s research interest lies in Chinese social phenomena and intercultural exchanges between China and the west during the May Fourth period. She strongly believes in interdisciplinary studies and is eager to learn 10000 ways to connect the dots differently. Long walks, aimless wanders and coffee keep her sane.

Julia Holz is a native of Boise, Idaho, although she now calls Houston home. She is a graduate of the University of Montana where she developed an abiding interest in the Nara and Heian periods while earning her B.A. in Japanese. She spent her junior year at Sophia University in Tokyo. Later completing an M.S. in Supply Chain and Logistics Technology at the University of Houston, she pursued a professional career in the international logistics industry, working in customs brokerage, programming, web development, and data analytics for a top ten global freight forwarder.

She is interested in the development of trade and economic structures in Japan and seeks to shed greater light on the activities of Japanese supply chains prior to the modern era. At Yale, she intends to use digital humanities methods both to analyze historical trade patterns and to communicate complex historical information to a broader audience. In her off hours, she enjoys science fiction, combating climate change, and applying project management concepts to elaborate cooking endeavors.

Xiaorong Liu

Luke Stanek, a native of Cleveland, first took an interest in Chinese history at Baldwin Wallace University, where he earned his B.A. in History with a focus on Chinese religion.  The summer following graduation, he took his first trip to China, traveling with two professors from Hong Kong to Shanghai to Beijing, visiting factories, businesses, universities, and of course historical sites and museums.  Luke spent his most recent two years at Miami University as a world history section instructor.  There, he earned his M.A. in History with a thesis project investigating public history and tourism in contemporary Xi’an, which—thankfully—necessitated a second trip to China.

Outside of East Asia, Luke is interested in post-conflict reconciliation, an interest sparked after working abroad for a semester in Northern Ireland and South Africa at two community youth and recreation centers during his junior year.  He is a political junkie, an avid fan of reading and occasionally writing satire, and hopes to pursue a PhD in History after the program.

Le Yu is interested in the material and intellectual exchange between China and the wider world via the overland and maritime trade routes, and especially in the social and cultural history of middle-period China in the context of cross-cultural exchange.

Born and raised in Guangzhou in southern China, Le received his B.A. in History from King’s College London. He explored the traditions and transmission of medical knowledge along the Silk Roads as he prepared his undergraduate dissertation, during which he also became curious about the transcultural nature of Buddhism and how it mediated and evolved with cross-cultural interaction. He then completed an M.A. in Buddhist Art: History and Conservation at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

He is rather sedentary and spends most of his leisure time on games, anime or fantasizing about traveling, though once outdoors he enjoys having a long walk while musing.

Yiting Chung

Eric Esteban graduated from the University of Florida with a BA in Japanese Language and Literature and a BHS in Public Health. At Yale, Eric continued his research on classical Japanese poetry. Generous funding from the Richard U. Light Fellowship enabled him to study for a year at the Inter-University Center in Yokohama, Japan. His MA thesis was on Japanese women’s poetry and the emergence of discourse on femininity during the medieval period. In the fall, Eric will matriculate into the doctoral program at the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University. 

Samuel Gonzales was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received dual B.A. degrees in History and Chinese at the University of Pittsburgh in 2016. He received a Fulbright research grant and studied China’s indigenous Yi population. At Yale, Sam’s research has focused on the history of language and script reform in East Asia, specifically the Yi minority. His long-term goals are to repay his student loans and continue his studies at the doctoral level.

Xiaoqing Luo received a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Smith College. She continued her education at Yale, studying Japanese and Chinese history as well as literature with a focus on gender. After graduation she plans to work in Japan.

Mary Mulcahy received a B.A. in English and Certificate in Asian Studies from Georgetown University in 2018. At the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale, she has concentrated on an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Chinese literature and culture. With experience in Hong Kong’s education and nonprofit sectors, Mary plans to work in the public humanities field after graduation.

Yongzhi Seow

Shennan Song received a B.A. in accounting from Peking University, China in 2010. She then went to the University of Hong Kong and achieved an M.A. in finance in 2012. In Hong Kong she worked as an art instructor for five years. At Yale, Shennan specialized in classical Chinese poetry and art. After graduation she plans to be a freelance artist, doing painting and writing poetry.

Bowen Wang received his B.A. in English and Japanese from Williams College in 2017. At Yale, Bowen specialized in classical Chinese literature and literary theories. He plans to write novels after graduation.

Qin Yang received his B.S. from Haverford College with double majors in History and Computer Science in 2017. At Yale, he studied transnational history in early modern and modern East Asia and wrote his thesis on the transmission of sweet potatoes thereinto. He received a Light Fellowship for summer language study in Hakodate, Japan in 2018. After Yale, Qin plans to pursue further graduate studies.

Kiki Tianqi Zhao received a B.A. from Communication University of China and an M.S. from Boston University. Before coming to Yale, she was a reporter for the New York Times in Beijing. At Yale, she has focused her studies on Chinese history. After graduation, she plans to be a freelance writer.

Herman Zheng

Yiran Dai comes from Shanghai, China, where she received her bachelor’s degree from Fudan University in 2016. She came to Yale directly afterwards in pursuit of further education in East Asian Studies, particularly Chinese literature. Last year, she published her first paper concerning urban literature and culture of modern China in Shanghai People’s Publishing House. Two years at Yale has introduced her to deeper knowledge on China from all realms including history and politics. Her academic interest has extended to Japanese culture as well. She plans to study in Yokohama after graduation.

Alexandre Hiro Honey completed a B.A. in Oriental Studies at Pembroke College, Oxford in 2016, and interned at Her Majesty’s Civil Service in Whitehall, London. At Yale, he has studied the relationship between utopia, aesthetics, and the philosophy of history. After graduating he plans to work and train in traditional crafts, before pursuing further graduate study.

Chuyue Kuang is from Jiangxi province in Southeastern China. She received her college education at Renmin University of China in Beijing as a history major with a minor in international relations. At Yale, she shifted her focus to cultural anthropology and wrote her master’s thesis on China’s nation-branding. Last summer, Chuyue interned at the Shanghai office of designaffairs, a design consultancy based in Munich, Germany. After graduation, she wishes to continue working in the design industry for a few years before pursuing a doctoral degree studying the anthropology of design.

Adam Wang received his B.A. from the University of Toronto in the field of economics and the history of international relations in 2014. He then attended Yale for an M.A. in History in 2015, after which he worked as a strategic consultant for entrepreneurial and development projects in China, the United States, and Africa. With a second M.A. from the East Asian Studies program, Adam is hoping to do further academic research on the history of Sino-Afro international relations since 1949. 

Yuqian Cai is interested in intellectual and environmental history, political economy, and comparative literature. Born and raised in Suzhou, China, he studied Classical Civilization at Kalamazoo and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College, then for two years he taught writing as a TA and tutor while translating Buried Ideas into Chinese. Yuqian also studied in Greece and Germany, interned at the Wilson Center, and worked on diplomatic oral history in China and the U.S. At Yale, he wants to learn Japanese and continue writing a novel in English about suicides in China. After the one-year M.A. degree program, he hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in History.

Amanda Chemeche

Zhou Fang was born in Zhejiang Province and received her B.A. degree in History from Renmin University of China with honors. During her freshman and sophomore years, she participated in and led the Department of History’s debate team. She was the minister of the propaganda department for the Youth League Committee and worked for the campus newspaper as well as the department magazine. In her junior year, she studied as an exchange student at National Taiwan University, during which she developed her interest in East Asian Studies. Not only is she willing to involve herself in volunteer work and social enterprises in this region, but she is also curious about East Asia’s path of modernization from pre-modern to modern times.  She hopes to further explore the nature and culture of East Asian societies and enjoys her intellectual journey to better understand China’s past and present, from regional and global perspectives. After graduation, she will participate in Japanese language programs in Japan and then pursue an International Education career in China.

Wanting Goh received her Bachelor of Science degree from Imperial College London in 2016. During her pre-university education, she took part in an exchange program in both Beijing and Shanghai, during which she discovered her interest in contemporary society in China and the wide range of socio-economic challenges faced by China in its rapid development. In addition, she is also interested in the dynamics of the political and economic developments in East Asia. Upon completion of her studies, she will be embarking on a career in the civil service of Singapore.

Jiaying Gu was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China. She received her B.A in Art History from China Central Academy of Fine Arts, and M.A. in Art History from UC Davis. Her master thesis, Landscaping My Mind: Representing the Idea of You 遊 (Travel) in Early Seventeenth-Century Garden Paintings discovers a new aesthetic and intellectual awareness of spatial representations in late Ming period. Jiaying’s intellectual interest is in Ming-Qing material culture and cultural transformations in East Asian societies. She is also interested in museum curatorial practices, and has interned in the Palace Museum and participated in museum workshops.

Kang Wei Heng is interested in the identity construction of China and Japan, how history and internal dynamics affect their foreign policy directions, and the role of media and pop culture in international relations. Coming from Singapore, he received his LL.B degree in International Politics from Peking University, China, and a B.A. degree in International Liberal Studies from Waseda University, Japan. Kang Wei aspires to be a journalist covering East Asia issues upon graduation, having served as the Editor-in-Chief for PKU’s Newsletter and interned at several media outlets in Singapore. He spends his leisure time reading and writing, and is able to so in English, Chinese and Japanese. He also enjoys watching performances by idol groups from Japan and China, mainly those whose name ends with “48”. Kang Wei will be returning to Singapore as a full-time journalist after graduation.

Leigh Lawrence hails from sunny San Diego, California where she grew up learning Spanish, playing volleyball, and eating avocados (or aguacates, as Leigh might say). After graduating high school, Leigh studied abroad in Beijing- her first time out of the US- and realized her love of the Chinese language. Leigh graduated with a B.A. in Chinese Languages & Literature from Arizona State University, with a certificate from the Chinese Language Flagship program. As an undergraduate, Leigh studied in Beijing with Princeton University and at Nanjing University, where she was awarded the prestigious Boren Scholarship for her studies into Sino-West African relations. Leigh has taught Mandarin in San Diego, at Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota, and at Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy in Vermont.

For the past two years Leigh has worked at the NSLI-Y team at American Councils for International Education in Washington DC, facilitating study abroad programs for critical languages. Leigh has traveled throughout much of China and has a strong love for the Chinese language, dialects, and particularly Chinese idioms as their cultural and historical connections.

Xinxin Li was born and raised in Guangzhou, China. She received her B.A. degree from University of California, San Diego, majoring in Economics with a minor in Japanese Studies. During her senior year, she interned at an EC startup in Osaka, Japan and traveled around the country. She also attended a Korean language program in Ewha Womans University in Seoul in order to learn Korean language and experience Korean culture. After graduating from UCSD, she interned in a private equity investment firm in Guangzhou, China. Such experience confirms her resolution on promoting US-Asian business and financial cooperation. Utilizing her multicultural and multi-language background, she will conduct her research work via an East Asian trans-regional perspective in the East Asian Studies program at Yale. She plans to work in financial industry after graduation.

Bryan Lynch graduated summa cum laude in economics from New York University in 2014. During his time at NYU, he interned at a financial media startup as well as a U.S. Senator’s office in New York City. After graduating, he worked on Wall Street for a year and a half, where he composed research reports on over 35 stocks in the basic materials sector. Compelled by a lifelong magnetism towards Chinese culture, he then spent a year abroad studying Chinese at Tsinghua University in Beijing, during which time he garnered first prize in the university’s annual “International Student Chinese Speech Competition”, and also served as a co-host for a school-wide karaoke contest.

Bryan’s current research interests lie in analyzing modern China’s social, political, and economic trends, as well as the evolution of the Chinese language catalyzed by these emerging forces. In particular, he wishes to explore how the stratification of formal and colloquial speech in the Chinese language affects debate and action throughout different realms of Chinese society. Outside of class, Bryan enjoys reading literature, poetry, philosophy, and history, as well long-distance running and playing chess. After graduation, Bryan will be studying Japanese for a year at IUC Yokohama, courtesy of Yale’s Light Fellowship.

Colin Moreshead is a Connecticut native who has made his way home after five years in Tokyo. He spent his undergraduate years studying East Asian Studies and Economics at Connecticut’s Wesleyan University and Tokyo’s Waseda University. After completing a postgraduate year at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Colin worked at several Japanese companies as a designer and consultant while starting a career in journalism. His two years with the New York Times in Tokyo sparked an interest in Japanese media policy and its effect on electoral outcomes. Japanese subculture is lost on Colin; he enjoys following politics, watching Hollywood movies, driving and writing about it all. After graduation, he will conduct research in Japan and pursue a career in policy analysis.

Halynne Shi’s journey in exploring Chinese culture started at a young age. Since the tender age of three, Halynne has been trained in classical Chinese Dance, obtaining her Grade 13 Chinese Dance diploma under the Beijing Dance Academy when she was fifteen. She has also earned several national awards in Chinese watercolor painting and Chinese calligraphy in Singapore. During her high school years, she was selected for the prestigious Bi-cultural Studies Program scholarship under the Ministry of Education (Singapore) and been involved in numerous China-related activities, ranging from organizing former Chinese President Hu Jintao’s state visit to her high school, to participating in study immersion programs in Shanghai and Beijing. Moreover, she was awarded the coveted Singapore Prime Minister’s Book Prize for outstanding bilingual students for her performance. She has since obtained her Bachelor of Science in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she completed an undergraduate dissertation on the financial integration of East Asian nations via the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization.

Weiqiong Sun was born and raised in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.  She received her B.A. degree from Nanjing University, majoring in English with a minor degree in Accounting.  Weiqiong’s primary interest is in contemporary China and East Asian regional integration.  Field research sponsored by the University of Tokyo and Korea University enabled her to understand the status quo of China, Japan, and Korea; their geopolitics, and their entangled connections throughout history.  During her exchange semester in the US and summer institute experience at Oxford, Weiqiong was given opportunities to further examine Asia and the experience of “being Asian” from a critical distance.  Her previous internship at China Daily USA confirms her determination to enhance the vitality and caring capacity of the bureaucratic administrative system of China by emulating its East Asian neighbors with similar cultures but different paths of development.  She looks forward to utilizing English, Chinese and Japanese to maximize the reach of her research work in the East Asian Studies M.A. program at Yale.

During her first year in the EAS program, Weiqiong took courses from a diversity of disciplines including the History, Political Science, East Asian Language & Literatures, Architecture, and Sociology. In spite of obvious challenges in the first semester, she managed to make progress and enjoy interdisciplinary training offered by the EAS program. She also presented her current research projects during several graduate conferences organized by Harvard and UCLA. Weiqiong is going to join the New York office of People’s Daily after graduation.

Growing up in sunny island Singapore, Nico Teo has never quite understood how she survived her undergraduate years at the London School of Economics with the London weather. She has since graduated as one of the top of her class with a First Class Honors in B.Sc Social Anthropology where she developed an interest in the financialization of contemporary China and how shifting political power and reconfiguration of social dynamics affect ethics of consumption and economic behavior. Having interned at Singapore’s Central Bank and at a US investment bank, she remains fascinated by global financial markets and seeks to explore the rising prominence of East Asian market economies and its influence on existing socio-political global arrangements. Nico will return to Singapore upon graduation to work for its central bank. 

Anne Ewbank graduated with a degree in Chinese Studies from Los Angeles’ Occidental College in 2013.  Afterwards she worked for a foreign exchange program in China before embarking on a Fulbright teaching assistantship in Jinmen, Taiwan.  At Yale, Anne focused on China and environmental history.

Liling Huang is a Singapore citizen.  She received a B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature and a second-major B.A. in International Politics and Global Affairs from Peking University in July 2015.  At Yale, she took classes in history, politics, literature and archaeology, and was a Teaching Fellow for a history course taught by Professor Denise Ho.  After graduation, Liling will work for Singapore’s Ministry of Education, first as a high-school teacher, then as a policy planner.

Gi Eun Lee received a B.S. in Film and Television from Boston University in 2013.  During her undergraduate years, Gi Eun interned at several media production companies such as Seoul Broadcasting System and Paper Gun Films in Hollywood, and after graduating from college, she worked at Mnet TV in Korea as an assistant director of 4 Show.  At Yale, Gi Eun specialized in East Asian cultural trends and cultural discrepancies expressed in media.  Gi Eun plans to work at a broadcasting network company in Korea after graduation.

Kankan Meng received her first degree in English Language and Literature from Nanjing University in 2015.  As an undergraduate, she interned at media outlets such as the New York Times.  At Yale, Kankan specialized in visual issues, art and literature.  After graduation she plans to continue her education with a focus on human computer interaction design.

George Remisovsky received his Honours Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College, University of Toronto.  He then spent three years in China as a Shanghai Government Scholar at Fudan University and working at a local television station.  At Yale, he researched the legal history of Colonial Taiwan and took courses in Chinese and Japanese history.  After graduation, George will head to Yokohama for the summer as a Light Fellow, pursuing Japanese language study before he joins Yale’s doctoral program in History in the fall.

Celine Wang received her B.A. magna cum laude in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Notre Dame in 2015.  As an undergraduate, Celine interned with several organizations, including a human rights NGO in Pretoria, South Africa, where she worked as a research intern while conducting her independent research.  At Yale, she focused her studies on Chinese contentious politics, human rights, and the issues of ethnic minorities.  After graduation Celine plans to pursue a doctoral degree in Political Science.

Hikaru Yamagishi was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan.  She received her B.A. in Government and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies from Dartmouth College in 2012.  After college, she worked on a fixed income trading floor at a Japanese bank in New York City, facilitating investment transactions for Japanese institutions and global central banks.  In the M.A. program, she has focused her studies in East Asian history and politics, and topics in Political Science.  Hikaru plans to stay at Yale after graduation, starting next year as a Ph.D. student in the Political Science department.

Alisha Zou received a B.A. in Asian Studies and Policy Studies from Rice University in 2015.  During her undergraduate years, she interned at J.P. Morgan, Warburg Pincus, and the Houston Asian American Archive Project.  It was her enthusiasm for archiving and learning about Asian American oral histories that brought her to the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University, where she specialized in the intellectual origins and progression of both Asian American and Chinese feminism.  After graduation, Alisha plans to enter the social work sector.

Lani Alden received two degrees in Japanese and Theatre from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she also obtained a Certificate in East Asian Studies. After graduating, she worked as an assistant at the Gordon W. Prange Collection helping catalogue censored post-war Japanese documents. At Yale, she focused on early modern Japan with strong emphasis on gender studies and Chinese cultural transmission. She also obtained a qualification from the Yale Initiative for the Study of Antiquity and the Pre-modern World. After graduation, Lani plans to continue her education in the Asian Languages & Civilizations program at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Jennifer Bruno received her A.B. summa cum laude from Cornell University and then lived and worked in Japan for two years. Following this, Jennifer received her M.Div. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary. At Yale, she focused her work on Japan studies and anthropology of religion. After graduation, she plans to pursue a career in international law, with a focus on East Asia.

Yuan Chen

Wee Shian Goh

Randall Tye Graham received a B.S. in History from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2003. He then spent over 2 years in Baghdad as a Cavalry platoon leader and company commander. Tye also served a year in Taiwan traveling East Asia and advising the Taiwan Army. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Arizona and Oklahoma State University. At Yale, he focused his studies on cross-strait issues and Taiwanese nationalism. After graduation, Tye will join the US Army Pacific’s International Military Affairs section in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Adam Haliburton received a B.A. in Ethics, Politics & Economics from Yale University in 2010. After completing a year-long fellowship in Yale’s Office of Federal Relations, he worked the next three years in Japan. During his time in the East Asian Studies M.A. Program, Adam has explored a number of disciplines, including archaeology; ethnomusicology; and poetics, as they relate to Japan. Adam will return to Yale in the fall as a doctoral student in the Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures.

Tiying Huang received her B.A. degree in English from Shanghai University in 2009, and a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Peking University in 2012. At Yale, Tiying focused on state control in China; its objects, means, and effects, both in early modern and contemporary times. Following graduation, Tiying plans to pursue a Ph.D. degree in Anthropology.

Alistair Hughes graduated with first class honors from the London School of Economics in 2014. Specializing in Chinese political economy at Yale, he has studied China’s major domestic and international relations challenges from an inter-disciplinary, social science perspective. He has paid particular attention to the socio-economic problems arising from rapid urbanization in China since the 1990s. Alistair was awarded a Light Fellowship by Yale in February 2015 and will travel to Beijing next year to conduct research and further improve his Mandarin language skills. 

Hanting Sha received her B.A. in English and Journalism in 2013 from Beijing Foreign Studies University in China. Before entering Yale, she worked in some of China’s major media organizations and international think tanks. At Yale, she specialized in Chinese foreign policy and Chinese contemporary history. After graduation, Hanting plans to pursue a career in the Foreign Service.

Jiakai Sheng received his B.A. in History from Tufts University in 2014. He concentrated on modern Japanese history and Japanese language as a Master’s student at Yale. After graduation, Jiakai will join Inter-University Center’s year-long program of advanced Japanese language study in Yokohama, Japan.

Shuang Song born in 1993 in Anhui Province, China, received his B.A. degree in Sociology from Renmin University of China, with an honored thesis. Before entering Yale, Shuang worked as a research assistant for two faculty members of the University of Chicago, and co-founded a student-managed salon with the aim to facilitate public discussion on the campus of Renmin University. At Yale, Shuang’s major research interests centered on contemporary politics, inequality, and stratification in China. Shuang plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Sociology after graduation.

Hui Wen Tea received her B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature with a minor in International Relations and Foreign Affairs from Peking University in 2014. She graduated as the top international student of her department and was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Award. At Yale, Hui Wen specialized in modern Chinese history and Chinese nationalism. She has completed many education-related internships, and she will be working in the Ministry of Education in Singapore after graduation.

Linan Yao went to Peking University for her undergraduate education, majoring in international politics and economics. During her junior year, she studied political science at National Taiwan University as an exchange student. While in the East Asian Studies M.A. Degree Program, she focused on Chinese politics and society, as well as comparative politics. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Political Science after graduation.

Yun Bai specialized in late-imperial Chinese literature and the ways in which women responded to the changes and challenges during the Ming-Qing transition. Yun’s interest in this subject started with her studies at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures as an undergraduate student at Tsinghua University. An exchange experience at the University of Toronto also exposed her to theoretical approaches to Chinese texts and women-centered criticism. After graduation, Yun is going to take a gap year and work for an overseas study consultancy in Beijing, after which she plans to go to graduate school and concentrate on early modern Chinese fiction and drama.

Alan Baubonis is interested in martial arts, especially those from China, and has been practicing, competing and teaching for fourteen years. Alan graduated from Boston University’s Anthropology B.A. program in 2004, then lived in Qingdao, China for two years to practice and research kung fu.  While at Yale, Alan studied social theory, Chinese culture, and classical Chinese in order to progress toward a better understanding of the socio-cultural contexts that shape how martial artists practice and to describe their training. He has been working in administrative positions at Yale since 2007 and is currently the Assistant Director (and primary student advisor) in the Richard U. Light Fellowship Program at Yale.

Marissa Fox graduated with a degree in art history from Barnard College, after which she followed her passion for Chinese art and moved to China. She has since worked at Art Labor Gallery, a contemporary art space in Shanghai. She has also worked as an art guide for Context Travel, where she developed and led in-depth tours of the Shanghai Museum as well as M50, Shanghai’s gallery district. At Yale, Marissa focused her studies on the history of Chinese art, and she plans to work in the arts after graduation.

Nicholas Frisch trained in music as a boy soprano at the Metropolitan Opera, singing additional solo roles at Carnegie Hall and BAM.  He studied music and Chinese at Columbia, writing an East Asian Languages and Cultures thesis on Red Guards with the support of a departmental grant. Graduating in 2007, he lived in Beijing, Taipei, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, supported by Fulbright, Blakemore, Critical Language, and Hong Kong University fellowships, and worked as a translator, researcher, and journalist. He has conducted policy research for The University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and the Hong Kong think tank Civic Exchange, and presented conference papers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and National Taiwan University. An aspiring scholar of Ming-Qing intellectual and cultural history, after finishing the East Asian Studies M.A. Program, Nicholas will remain at Yale to pursue a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures.

Sami Honkasolo was born in Finland, but moved to Japan after high school. Passionate about languages since a young age, he decided to major in Linguistics with a strong East Asian focus, and received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Linguistics from the University of Tokyo. He has since interned at the United Nations and worked for a Japanese financial company in Tokyo. Living in Japan made visiting East Asia easy, and by visiting places such as Tibet and North Korea, he became deeply interested in East Asian international relations. Consequently, Sami came to Yale to deepen his understanding about the international relations of East Asia.  In the future, he intends to pursue a Ph.D. to further develop his regional expertise.

Yuan-I Huang, also known as Sophia, has a profound interest in transculturation studies between English-speaking and Sinophone communities, using translation as a focal point. Chinese is her native language, however, she received her B.A. as an English major at National Taiwan Normal University. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a tutor and part-time translator.  In her sophomore year, she became the Chief of Art Design in the English Department’s Student Association, which equipped her with experience in media, advertisement, graphic design and leadership.  While in the East Asian Studies M.A. program at Yale, she focused her studies on modern Chinese literature and media and plans to work in media marketing after graduation.

Kyohei Itakura

Connor Mills grew up in North Dakota and graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in History in 2011.  He developed a love of historical research during his undergraduate years at Yale and has returned to campus after working at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. His research interests centered on the postwar intersection of Japanese and United States history during the Occupation and the Korean War. After graduation, Connor will use a Richard U. Light Fellowship to spend the summer studying Japanese at the Inter-University Center in Yokohama before beginning a Ph.D. in History at Princeton University this fall.

Xindi Qin received her B.A. in English Language and Literature from Shanghai International Studies University.  A central thread running through her academic interests is contemporary Japanese popular culture as perceived by its consumers with diverse cultural backgrounds. As the captain of her college’s softball team, Xindi noticed the enthusiasm shared among her teammates generated from a love for the characters in Japanese sports manga and for Japanese culture on a larger scale. At Yale, she focused her studies on consumer culture and gender issues in contemporary Japan and China.  After graduation, Xindi plans to pursue a career in the management consulting industry in the Asia-Pacific region.

Rebecca Roberts fell in love with the Japanese language and culture at her high school in Gastonia, North Carolina, which had a teacher exchange program with Hiroshima, Japan. Once at university, she started studying Chinese and traveled to Beijing, China where she didn’t speak English for three and a half months of classes and then interned at the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center for two months. After graduation, Rebecca spent a year in Kanuma, Japan teaching English and then four months traveling around the world. At Yale, she concentrated on Japanese and Chinese history, and plans to work in international higher education, focusing on U.S.-Asia exchange.  After graduating from Yale, she will first work at a university in North Carolina and be engaged with the Raleigh-area Japanese community.

Xin Ying Tseng was born and raised in Singapore.  Her interest in China was first sparked by a high school immersion program to Beijing. She then went on to Peking University to pursue a B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature, as well as a double major in International Relations and Foreign Affairs.  Xin Ying’s training in Chinese Language and Literature has heightened her sensitivity towards the nuances of Mandarin, enabling her to better understand and appreciate China’s diversity and socio-political contexts.  At Yale, she focused on China’s foreign policies and state-society relations to gain a more holistic understanding of contemporary China.  Passionate about Singapore-Sino and ASEAN-Sino relations, Xin Ying will return to work in Singapore’s civil service upon completion of her studies.

Anran Wang was born and raised in Beijing, and his interest in transnational East Asian issues started during his high school years. Interaction with South Korean students and a school-organized trip to Japan boosted his enthusiasm for the “sensitive” issues between East Asian countries, and made him determined to learn Korean and Japanese. He attended Peking University and majored in International Politics. He also enrolled in the double degree program at Waseda University and spent his junior year in Tokyo.  At Yale, Anran focused his studies on nationalism and nationalist conflicts between China, Japan and the two Koreas, as well as ethnic tensions in China and Inner Asia.  Following graduation, Anran plans to pursue a Ph.D. degree in comparative politics or modern history after a gap year of individual research and travel.

Likun Yang (Chinese History and Literary Tradition)

Qiudi Zhang graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A in both Anthropology and Dance. With her passion in culture and art, Qiudi is most interested in minority issues in China, especially those of Tibet and Xinjiang. She has spent two summers teaching and volunteering in Nyingchi, Tibet, and has focused her undergraduate research on analyzing the Tibet-China dispute. While volunteering in different minority communities in China, Zhang enjoyed learning traditional dances from the locals and was curious to find ways to better protect and represent these art forms. As a dancer, Qiudi has performed works and participated in workshops of various choreographers and dance companies such as José Limón Dance Company, Trisha Brown Dance Company, and Trey McIntyre Project. At Yale, she continued to focus her studies on anthropology and minority issues in China, and performed with Citations A Cappella and A Different Drum Dance Company.  After graduation, she will continue her research with Professor Deborah Davis (Yale Sociology) over the summer, and plans to study Russian and Kazakh languages in Central Asia.