Yu Shi
Biography
Yu’s current research centers on the social and cultural history of late imperial and modern China, with a particular focus on the global media industry, folk performance, urban society, and gender studies. Adopting a bottom-up perspective, her dissertation seeks to explore the survival strategies and cultural practices of grassroots performers, especially their interplays with the bourgeoning global entertainment capitalism, which aims to offer insights into an underrepresented narrative of China’s modernization during the early 20th century. Yu’s work involves unearthing media sources, particularly gramophone recordings that often have been overlooked in conventional historical studies. Beyond the history of popular culture(s), she is also interested in the everyday life experiences of lowbrow women in late imperial China, and the social history of technology and material culture.
Advanced to Candidacy
Subfield
Late imperial and modern China; global capitalism; East Asian media history; popular culture; urban history; gender studies; material cultures, critical theories.
Publications
- Shi, Yu. “Tensions on the B-Side: The Global Gramophone Industry and Quyi Performances in Early Twentieth-Century Beijing.” Twentieth-Century China 47, no. 3 (2022): 223-242. doi:10.1353/tcc.2022.0029.
Awards & Grants
- Association for Asian Studies East and Inner Asia Council Travel Grant
- Taiwan Studies Graduate Research Funding
- Kawahara Fellowship in Japanese Studies
- UCLA Graduate Research Summer Fellowship
- Meyer & Renee Luskin Graduate Endowed Fellowship
- Phoenix Research Award, University of Chicago
Conference Presentations
- “Native Ears to Feed: Producing Strategies of Transnational Gramophone Companies in the 1920s China through Quyi Recordings.” Association for Asian Studies Conference, Panel Organizer and Paper Presenter, Seattle, March 2024.
- “A Paradise in the Slums: How Soundscapes of Quyi Performance Interacted with the Entertainment Emporium in 1910s Beijing.” Association for Asian Studies Conference, Boston, March 2023.
