Biography
Cheuk Yee Wai obtained her DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford in 2023. She holds an MPhil in Gender Studies and a BA in Religious Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her general research interests revolve around literary representation of female activities, sexualities, popular religionsand cultural perceptions.
Her DPhil thesis, ‘Sisters in Crime: Women and Illicit Sexual Affairs in Late Imperial Chinese Erotic Fiction’,focuses on the representation of female bodies and female inter-relationship between women of different social statuses, and the instability of such relationships. She worked with the “TEXTCOURT: Linking the Textual Worlds of Chinese Court Theater, ca. 1600-1800” project as project support coordinator since 2020 and as junior postdoctoral researcher between 2025-2026. She has also taught in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford, on Chinese Literature and Culture, and Classical Chinese.
Beyond academia, she is the co-founder of Free Periods Hong Kong, a Hong Kong-based registered charitable organisation that focuses on supporting underprivileged people experiencing menstrual-related hardships.
Educational Background:
- 2019-2023: DPhil in Chinese Studies, University of Oxford
- 2017-2019: PhD in Chinese and Inner Asian Studies, SOAS University of London (transferred)
- 2015‒2017: MPhil in Gender Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- 2010‒2013: BA in Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Research Interests:
Cheuk Yee Wai’s general research interests revolve around representations of the erotic, females and religion in vernacular texts. She began studying late imperial Chinese novels for her MPhil thesis, which investigated the images of Buddhist monks in selected erotic novels. For her DPhil thesis, ‘Sisters in Crime: Women and Illicit Sexual Affairs in Late Imperial Chinese Erotic Fiction’, she shifted her focus to the representation of stereotypes of women from different background, their inter-relationships and the instability of such relationships. In her work with the TEXTCOURT project, she has investigated the use and presentation of religious elements in Qing court theatre. Her current project explores the perceptions of bodily discharge and the gendered bodies in pre-modern Chinese novels and related vernacular texts.
Courses Taught:
- Literary Worlds and Cultural Flows in Pre-modern China
- Classical Chinese II
- East Asia Survey (Ming Fiction, Qing Fiction)
Recent Publications and/or Conferences:
- Presentation on ‘Staging Gods for the Emperor: Use of Religious Elements in Qing Court Theatre’, in the Association for Asian Studies AAS2026 Annual Conference (Vancouver, 13 March 2026).
- Presentation on 'Buddha on Stage: Buddhist Elements in Late Imperial Court Drama', in the Interdisciplinary Studies on Chinese Buddhism in the Greater China Area: Retrospect and Prospect Conference (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 19-20 December 2024).
- Presentation on 'Rationalising the Forbidden: Emotional Journey of Females in Late Imperial Chinese Erotic Novels', in the 2024 Joint East Asian Studies Conference (University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom, 26-28 June 2024).
- Presentation on ‘Exploration of Religious Worldview in Court Theatre: with Hunyuanhe as an Example’, in the Digital Humanities and Literary Transmissions in Pre-modern East Asia Workshop (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, 26 September 2023).
- Presentation on ‘Reading Maidservants in the Imperial Chinese Erotic Novel Langshi’, in the Talking Bodies 2023 Conference (University of Chester, 13 June 2023).
- Presentation on ‘Sex life of pre-modern Chinese maidservants’, in the British Association of Chinese Studies 2022 Conference (University of Oxford, 31 August 2022).
- Presentation on ‘Sleeping with Mothers: Mother characters in Ming and Qing Erotic Fictions’, in the 2019 International Conference on Ming-Qing Studies (Academia Sinica, Taiwan, 29 August 2019).
- Presentation on ‘Libertine Monks and Women: Sexual Fantasies in Late Imperial Chinese Vernacular Erotica’, in the University of Oxford China Humanities Graduate 2017 Conference: Extra(ordinary) China: Practices of the Everyday (University of Oxford, January 2017).
