Qingyi is a Ph.D. student in East Asian and Comparative Literatures at Washington University in St. Louis, with a primary research interest in memories and nostalgia in contemporary Chinese media, performance, and material culture. Born and raised in Shanghai, China, she enjoyed reading her grandfather’s diaries during her middle school days, which kindled her passion for exploring the unlived past. She graduated from Fudan University with a bachelor’s degree in History and an undergraduate thesis on the representation of “hysterical women” in newspapers and medical handbooks in Republican Shanghai (1930s-1940s). She also holds a master’s degree in East Asian Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she completed a master’s thesis on the recontextualization of disco culture in China’s early reform era (1980s-1990s).
Driven by a passion for education, she has actively volunteered at the Shanghai Museum and served as the TA for undergraduate courses on Chinese language and culture. During her leisure time, she finds joy in singing, dancing, and watching musicals. She was also the first prize winner in the “FLTRP·ETIC CUP” English Public Speaking Contest in 2018.