Xianda Huang

Xianda Huang is a scholar specializing in modern China and East Asia. He earned his B.A. in Economics and Chinese Literature from Vanderbilt University in 2022 and his M.A. in East Asian Studies from Yale University in 2024. Stressing the importance of transcending boundaries, his research explores how pop music and culture have served as a tool of soft power in both international and domestic politics in mid-to late-20th-century China. His M.A thesis examines a period of increasing cultural opening in 1980s China, from initial censorship to official acceptance of pop music, through the music of Taiwanese pop singer Teresa Teng. In 2023-2024, he served as the elected student representative of the Yale Graduate Student Assembly and was a graduate fellow at the Yale European Studies Council. 

 

In Australia, Xianda will research how overseas Chinese diaspora communities in Australia use music and writing to preserve their memories and express concerns to the broader world. He will present his findings at the 2024 Global China Conference at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies.