Congratulations to the Class of 2026!

Graduation is a time of strong sentiments: pride in student achievements, nostalgia for the time they have spent together at school, joy in celebrating with family and friends, and anticipation at the prospect of taking a new path after reaching this major milestone.

On May 7, APSI recognized nine students who completed an MA in East Asian Studies and three students who completed a graduate certificate in East Asian Studies. The ceremony began with remarks by APSI's director, Professor Prasenjit Duara, who congratulated all the graduates and noted that they had succeeded in a difficult program, concluding “This experience will stand you in good stead in whatever profession you choose, academic or non-academic—the kinds of writing skills, the kinds of thinking skills. I don't know of so many MA students giving presentations at this stage in annual and national conferences, and of course the regional [AAS] conference. This is very heartening to hear, and it should make you feel very confident.”

Professor Eileen Cheng-yin Chow, director of graduate studies for APSI, then introduced each graduating student. In her initial remarks, she shared how “one thing that's actually touching is reading acknowledgments, because it's seeing how people have really been a community—people who have had their friends, their pets, their family—as part of the support network that allowed them to go forward.”

I am truly grateful to have been part of the APSI family!”

—Daniel Zhang

Learn more about each of our MA graduates, including comments shared by members of their thesis committees:

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Jiayang Cai—Fiction, Friction: A Sengoha Encounter in Lotus

chair: Eileen Cheng-yin Chow || committee: Kimberly Hassel, Nayoung Aimee Kwon

remarks from Professor Chow on Jiayang's thesis: “One thing I think was an incredible contribution is that not only was he thinking of the cultural, historical, maybe geopolitical project of reading, which a lot of people have done, but I think one thing that Jiayang did in a lovely way is really thinking about the aesthetic, material, and visual aspect of reading. I think you're going to do great things; I'm so happy to be your teacher.”

This summer, Jiayang is heading to San Francisco, where he will pursue employment opportunities while evaluating options for a PhD or a professional career.

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Jia’er Liu—Under the Influence: Visibility, Interpretation, and Embodied Pleasure in Contemporary Chinese Heels Dance

chair: Carlos Rojas || committee: Kimberly Hassel, Anne Allison

remarks from Professors Rojas and Chow on Jia’er’s thesis: “It was truly a delight to work with Jia’er. Jia’er focused on a sexually evocative dance form (heels dance) that was performed by (mostly) Chinese women shared on Chinese social media platforms like Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat.” Describing Jia’er as a “super-sharp and innovative thinker,” a trait she shares with fellow advisee Daniel Zhang, Professor Rojas expresses how impressed he was by her collection of extensive ethnographic data (both digital and in-person), and ability to analyze it within a sophisticated theoretical framework. Professor Chow shared how Jia’er carefully thought about form, content, and how people really intersect this idea of a queer Chineseness, conlcuding “the work is fantastic.”

Jia'er is exploring options for developing a professional career or pursuing advanced graduate study.

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Meilin Long—Divergent Memories of the “Refugee Student”: Trauma, Politics, and Identity in the Memoirs of Chi Pang-yuan and Wang Dingjun

chair: Eileen Cheng-yin Chow || committee: Guo-Juin Hong, Nayoung Aimee Kwon

remarks from Professor Chow on having Meilin as a student and thesis advisee: “I've had so much fun with Meilin. One thing that's so interesting is she always had a through line of being interested in exodus, like people leaving and wanting to leave things. She was incredibly inspired by the refugee narratives of people leaving the mainland of China, especially Wang Dingjun. She wrote this wonderful thesis, really thinking in terms of narratives of trauma and how people cope, and how people have traumatic responses, to talk about Wang Dingjun and Xi Banyan's work to mainlanders. And then she decided, like her heroes, like her objects of study, she wanted to also embrace that and write a game as a way of writing trauma.  ... I can't wait to play the game!”

This summer, Meilin will go to Nanjing, where she will continue producing a digital game development company with Leo, including launching their first mobile game in the third or fourth quarter of 2026.

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Leo Lyu—Paper I: On Schoolyard Tearfests; Paper II: A Digital Hospice in China

chair: Ralph Litzinger || committee: Eileen Cheng-yin Chow, Nayoung Aimee Kwon

remarks from Professor Litzinger: “It was such a joy to work over the last two years with Leo. He has become my favorite ‘digital lurker.’ Taking a deep dive into how patients with Black Lung disease use different social media platforms to build community, share and debate the efficacy of all kinds of treatments, he accomplished through his research two things at once: with deep empathy, he told moving stories of vernacular forms of mutual aid and care, and he reframed, and rethought, the long literature on protest in China around the concept of ‘rightful resistance.’ I can’t take much credit for his accomplishment as one of our stellar MA students; this now-consummate digital lurker did almost all of it on his own. I will miss him. But I know I have made a life-long friend.”

This summer, Leo is heading to Nanjing, where he will continue establishing a digital game development company with Meilin and working on their first game launch, targeted for release later in 2026.

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Lingxiang Sun—Gambling for Love: Chinese Women's Engagement in K-pop Fandom

chair: Kimberly Hassel || committee: Eileen Cheng-yin Chow, Hae-Young Kim

remarks from Professor Hassel: “Lingxiang's thesis offers a nuanced and rich exploration of the world of K-Pop fandom, particularly among Chinese women. Her thesis, which could easily serve as the basis of a doctoral dissertation, demonstrates that we should not dismiss fandom as superfluous. Her extensive multi-sited fieldwork highlights that fandom and the relationships between fans are complicated, nuanced, and involve entanglements of capitalist logic, labor, intimacy, and love. I learned so much from Lingxiang’s stellar thesis, which was a real page-turner. It is clear that Lingxiang cares deeply about her interlocutors and thesis topic. I greatly enjoyed working with Lingxiang during her time at Duke and will miss our philosophical conversations, which always left me with much food for thought. Congratulations, Lingxiang!”

This summer, Lingxiang will head to Beijing to begin a professional career in the technology industry.

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Lilia Yining Yan—Love by Commission: Performing Intimacy in Chinese Otome Game Fandom

chair: Kimberly Hassel || committee: Anne Allison, Eileen Cheng-yin Chow

remarks from Professor Hassel: “Lilia's thesis offers a compelling exploration of cosplay commission and Chinese otome games. I was struck by Lilia's powerful ethnographic writing—her wonderfully written vignettes drew me into the world of cosplay commission, including her own personal experiences. Alongside its consideration of transnational media flows and consumption of franchises such as Love and Deepspace, her thesis motivates a rethinking of intimacy, fandom, and sexuality. I learned so much from Lilia's thesis—which is a much-needed contribution to fields such as Anthropology and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies—and it is clear that her thesis also intrigued her committee members and peers. In fact, when teaching about otome games in my courses, I frequently discuss Lilia’s stellar thesis! I greatly enjoyed working with Lilia during her time at Duke and will miss our conversations dearly. I will also miss her incredible baked goods. Congratulations, Lilia!”

Lilia is taking time to consider her next steps as she debates staying with academia or transitioning to a professional field.

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Siyu Zhang—In the Wake of Resettlement: Reconfigurations of Space, Order, and Sociality in a Bashang Village

chair: Engseng Ho || committee: Prasenjit Duara, Bai Gao, Yi Wu (Clemson)

remarks from Professor Ho: “Siyu took up a challenging research topic, studying a mixed population of herders and farmers near the Mongolian plateau not far from the capital Beijing, continually shaped and reshaped by successive state regimes and policy experiments that oscillated between centralization and decentralization over decades, if not centuries. Out of this fluid cocktail, she produced an MA thesis that is unmatched for structural clarity, analytical depth and intellectual sophistication. It combines a geographically grounded, longue duree, historical perspective with analysis of state-community dynamics, and demonstrates with remarkable ethnographic clarity how the cumulative effects of shifting political currents shape the emotional tenor of interpersonal ritual and moral  relations on the ground. This is one of the absolute best theses, MA or PhD, that I've seen in a quarter century at Duke and Harvard.”

Siyu will be working for a year following her graduation and applying to PhD programs in history and anthropology.

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Daniel Xuyang Zhang—Negotiating Wanghuang: Chinese Gay Men’s Pornographic Practices on X

chair: Carlos Rojas || committee: Kimberly Hassel, Anne Allison

remarks from Professor Rojas on Daniel’s thesis: “It was truly a delight to work with Daniel.” Daniel's thesis looked at sexually explicit posting on the social media platform X by gay Chinese men. Describing Daniel as a “super-sharp and innovative thinker,” a trait he shares with fellow advisee Jia’er Liu, Rojas expressed how impressed he was by Daniel’s collection of extensive ethnographic data (both digital and in-person), and ability to analyze it within a sophisticated theoretical framework.

additional remarks from Professor Chow: “Daniel wrote a midterm paper, I remember, on queer theory in Japan, thinking about what does it mean to use a very you could say, Western sense of queerness, but intersecting with things that you cared about. But then, when he told me about his new project for his thesis, I also thought that was fantastic and wonderful.”

Daniel is exploring options for further study in PhD programs.

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Anqi Zheng—Claiming Li Qingzhao’s Legacy in Modern China: Women’s Participation in Chinese Collecting Culture from 1800-1950

chair: Eileen Cheng-yin Chow || committee: Prasenjit Duara, Nicole Elizabeth Barnes

remarks from Professor Chow: “Her thesis is on this wonderful sort of culture of collecting, a very bold and ambitious discussion where she really starts with thinking about Li Qingchao's records of metal and stone, and moves it all the way forward to the contemporary moment, gallivanting through the Qing and the Republican era, and really asking: why do we conceptualize Chinese collecting culture as male-dominated, when there exists plenty of well-known visual and literary material indicating that women participated in the field, whether as themselves or as parts of families? I should make this point that Anqi is a historian, an art historian, and a literary critic, and she fluidly navigated those disciplinary boundaries the whole time she was here. I'm so impressed with Anqi's intelligence, dedication, and tenacity. She's also simply a truly lovely person, a fully engaged and contributing member to the academic community, who has also bridged the sometimes invisible boundaries between disciplinary areas among her cohort, and a student who we will miss when she graduates from Duke. And we already have plans for future panels and conferences....”

In the fall of 2026, Anqi will begin PhD studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Get to know the students who completed a graduate certificate in East Asian Studies:

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Jooyoung Hong—PhD, Religious Studies—A Church For Many: Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan and the Transformation of Korean Catholicism in the 20th Century

After graduation, Dr. Hong—who is also an ordained Presbyterian minister—is heading to Nashville, TN.

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Yixuan Jiang—MA, Graduate Liberal Studies—Do I Really, Really Realize? Being with Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Buddhist Turn

Following her graduation, Yixuan is exploring her options for academic and professional advancement.

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Wenda Wang—Master of International Development Policy (MIDP)—Social Insurance Contribution and Employment Quality in China-Evidence from Zhejiang's 2012 Reform

Wenda will be pursuing professional development following his graduation while also applying to PhD programs in public administration.

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