Yinghui Wu

Yinghui Wu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), specializing in early modern Chinese literature of the Ming and Qing periods. Their academic work bridges traditional Chinese literary studies with contemporary media theory, creating innovative approaches to understanding historical cultural practices.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Chinese & Comparative Literature, Washington University in St. Louis
• M.A. in English Language and Literature, Peking University
• B.A. in English, Renmin University of China

Professor Wu's research program centers on rethinking Chinese drama and performance cultures through the lens of early modern media studies. Their work challenges conventional paradigms that treat plays merely as literary texts or theatrical performances, arguing instead for understanding drama as part of a broader media ecology. Drawing on concepts like media archaeology (which examines pre-electronic media forms while critiquing technocentric views of media history) and media ecology (which considers the interconnectedness of media systems), Wu conceptualizes media expansively to include semiotic elements (language, writing, image), technical materials (manuscript, print, paper), and cultural practices (music, dance, drama). This interdisciplinary approach reveals how early modern Chinese drama functioned as 'expanding and changing processes of cultural innovation' through the refashioning and multiplying of media.

Wu's publication record demonstrates a consistent focus on how drama intersects with various media forms in early modern China. The articles show progression from analyzing specific textual practices (the 2016 T'oung Pao article on eight-legged essays) to more comprehensive media theoretical frameworks (the 2025 East Asian Publishing and Society article on illustrated plays). The research reveals patterns of cross-generic experimentation and the fluid boundaries between literary forms in Ming dynasty China, with particular attention to how visual elements, textual annotations, and performance practices created complex reading and viewing experiences.

Professor Wu is currently working on several significant projects including a monograph Playing with Plays: Drama and Early Modern Chinese Media Ecologies (forthcoming 2025) from Brill, and research on 'environments as media' through Pan Zhiheng's writings, broken bonds between performers and patrons in seventeenth-century China, and the information ecology of early modern China. They have also co-edited Emotions in Non-Fictional Representations of the Individual, 1600-1850: Between East and West (2021), demonstrating their commitment to cross-cultural scholarly dialogue.