Li Jianing 李佳凝

Education:
B.A., National University of Singapore
M.A., National University of Singapore

Research Interest:
Modern and Contemporary Northeastern Asian Literature, History, and Culture

Self-Introduction:
Born and raised up in a Chinese border town adjacent with Russia and Mongolia, I have long been fascinated by Northeastern Chinese ethnic minorities and multicultural borderland narration. Ten years of study overseas have not only deepened my nostalgia for this region but also provided me with renewed perspectives from which to critically examine both my home region and my ancestral trajectory of northward migration. I am interested in Northeastern China studies across multidiscipline. In addition, one of my long-term scholarly ambitions is to write a book on the Chinese elderly to appreciate the accompany and care of my maternal grandparents.

Thesis Advisor: A/P Tu Hang

Thesis Title: Dual Wastelands: Transcultural Representation of Northeastern Asian Environment, Affect, and Media (1890-1990)

Thesis Research Area:
What makes a land a “wasteland”? My research traces how Northeast Asia was repeatedly imagined as empty, backward, or exhausted across a century of dramatic change. From the 1890s to the 1990s, Russian exiles, Japanese colonial settlers, Chinese migrants, socialist planners, writers, and filmmakers all encountered the same landscape but saw very different possibilities in it.