Sabrina Yunzhu Tao earned her PhD degree in modern Chinese literature and culture from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures (EALL) at the University of Oregon. Her areas of interest include Cold War transnationalism, socialist internationalism and Third Worldism, socialist Chinese cinema, music, and popular culture, Hong Kong literature and cinema, as well as transmedial practices. She has been publishing academic works, translations, and creative writing in both Chinese and English. Her dissertation inquires the notion of “socialist Chineseness” in relation to the PRC’s audiovisual propaganda in Cold War Hong Kong and beyond.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
- “Listening to New China: The Art-Tune Records Company, Cultural Propaganda, and Music Transplantation in the Early Cold War Hong Kong (1950s-1960s).” China Perspectives, 2022 (131): 39-48.
Conference Organization
· Organizer and Committee Chair, UO EALL Annual Graduate Student Symposium, Eugene, Oregon (April 22, 2023)
· Co-organizer, “Staging Socialist Internationalism: New Roles for Audio and Visual Media in the CCP’s Global Propaganda Network (1940s-70s),” AAS Panel Session, Honolulu, Hawai’i (March 2022).
Conference Presentations
· “(De-)politicizing Shanhe and Fengwu of the Motherland: Landscape, Historical Sites, and Visual Tourism in the PRC-Hong Kong Coproduced Travel and Scenic Documentaries (1950-70s),” in 2023 UO EALL Graduate Student Symposium, Eugene, Oregon (April 22, 2023).
· “‘Flying Swallows’ On and Off Stage: Socialist Zaji in Cold War Hong Kong and Beyond,” in 2023 Hawai‘i International Conference on Chinese Studies (HICCS), Center for Chinese Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (January 4-6, 2023).
· “Sounding Socialist China Abroad: The Politics of Folk Songs with ‘National Style’ in Cold War Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (1950s-70s),” in The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Department of Comparative Literature Graduate Workshop “Thinking China and Circulation” (October 20-22, 2022; virtual).
· “Chineseness as Self-Exhibition: Regional Landscape and Folklore in PRC-Hong Kong Coproduced Documentaries in the Cold War Era (1950s-70s).” Panel speech in Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Honolulu, USA (March 2022; virtual).
· Graduate Student Roundtable Presentation. “Building a Utopian Space: Amoy-dialect Cinema and Diaspora Experience in Post-war Hong Kong (Late 1950s-60s).” UCLA-NTNU Taiwan Studies Initiative Conference on Sinophone Studies (April 2019). The paper was also accepted by "Chinese Cinema in Global Context--Past and Present" Conference, University of Idaho (April 14-15, 2019).
· “Listening to China: The Art-Tune Records Company, Commercialism and Propaganda in Cold War East Asia (1950-70s).” Panel speech in Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Denver, USA (March 2019).
Translations
· Ben-Ami Scharfstein: Amoral Politics: The Persistent Truth of Machiavellism, Chinese translation. Nanjing University Press. March 2022.
· Helen Sword: Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write, Chinese translation. Beijing: People’s Daily Press. November 2018.
Creative writing
· Short story: “Xin Jie” (“New Territories”), published in Renmin Wenxue (People’s Literature), April 2018. The story was also selected into Yanceng: 2018 Youth Literature, published by Renmin Literature Press, April 2019.
Ph. D in Chinese Literature and Culture, East Asian Languages and Literatures (EALL), University of Oregon
M. A in English (Literary Studies), The Chinese University of Hong Kong
B. A in English (Translation), Beijing Language and Culture University
Institut Supérieur des Traducteurs et Interprètes, Université Libre de Bruxelles: undergraduate exchange program, courses taught in French
CHN 101 First-year Chinese. UO EALL. Fall 2023, Winter 2024.
CHN 150 Introduction to Chinese Narrative. UO EALL. Spring 2020 & 2021.
CHN 151 Introduction to Chinese Cinema. UO EALL. Winter 2020 & 2021.
CHN 152 Introduction to Chinese Popular Culture. UO EALL. Fall 2019 & 2020.
CHN 201/204, 202/205, 203/206 Second-year Chinese. UO EALL. Fall 2018, Winter and Spring 2019, Spring 2024.
CHN 305 History of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to the 3rd Century CE. UO EALL. Fall 2022.
CHN 306 History of Chinese Literature: Medieval Period. UO EALL. Winter 2023.
CHN 307 History of Chinese Literature: The Twentieth Century. UO EALL. Spring 2023.
Graduate Seminar: History of Hong Kong Cinema. Nanjing University of the Arts. Fall 2021 (in Chinese).