博士研究生研究员 | Postgraduate Research Affiliates
Thanks to our weekly postgraduate workshop series, MCI brings together PhD students working on China from across the humanities. Our PGR affiliates contribute to MCI's vibrant and inclusive research culture.
Join! To become a MCI postgraduate research affiliate, please email mci@manchester.ac.uk with your name in English and Chinese (中文), a headshot, your UoM department, the expected completion date of your PhD, and your research topic or question (in no more than one sentence).
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Timothy Cheuk Yin Chan 陳卓言 – PhD History (SALC) 2026
“Britain’s ‘Loss of China’? Revisiting the Hong Kong Mint through a Global Perspective, 1841 – 1870”. Timothy’s research interest lies in the diplomatic and commercial relations between China and the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on Hong Kong’s importance in the Sino-foreign interactions.
View humanities blogpost about Timothy
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Zixuan Hu 胡紫璇 – PhD Politics (SoSS) 2025
“Subjectivity, Identity, and the Everyday Insecurity of Geopolitics: Hong Kong-Mainland China Student Interaction in the UK.” Zixuan’s research interests are in interpersonal interactions within the context of geopolitical tensions, focusing on national identity, ontological security, and subjective experiences.
Email Zixuan
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Jingjing Huang 黄菁菁 - PhD Politics (SoSS), 2028
“Gambling with the State: Marginal Actors in China's Political Process - A Strategic Study of the LGBTQ+ Student Movement”. Jing’s research focuses on LGBTQ+ student activism in China, with a particular interest in grassroots student activist communities on campuses and resistance among the younger generation.
View research profile
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Yonghao Huang 黄永灏 – Phd Politics (SoSS) 2027
“How should Liberal Democracy defend itself from the challenges of the illiberal without violating liberal commitments and principles?” Yonghao also has broader interests in Chinese Politics.
View research profile
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Shanglin Liu 刘尚麟 – Phd Sociology (SoSS) 2028
Shanglin’s PhD project is funded by Stuart Hall Foundation. His research focuses on politics, race, class, and postcolonialism. Shanglin is working closely with colleagues in China utilising both Chinese and Japanese archives to explore urban lives in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo/Manzhouguo 伪满洲国 (1932-1945). He seeks to understand how modernity and modernisation was lived and imagined under Japanese colonialism.
View profile at the Stuart Hall Foundation
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Shan Shi 石珊 – PhD Sociology (SoSS) 2025
Shan’s doctoral research examines collaborative networks in the production realms of the Chinese music industry, with a longitudinal case study on BADHEAD, a sub-label of Modern Sky—one of China’s largest independent music companies.
View research profile
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Rujin Wang 王茹瑾 – PhD Architecture (SEED) 2026
Rujin’s research focuses on the spatial practices and everyday experiences of older people in urban communities in China. She is interested in urban change, health and aging, and the everyday experience of urban difference and inequality in China.
View research profile
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Yingqian Wang 王盈茜 – PhD Global Development Institute (SEED) 2027
Yingqian’s research focuses on technology-driven organisational change and work psychology. She is currently working on a project on “Understanding the Influence of Workplace Digital Transformation on Employees' Well-being: A Case Study in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises”.
View research profile
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Feiyang Xu 徐菲阳 – PhD Politics (SoSS) 2025
“Alibaba's Ecosystem in Southeast Asia: A Critical Political Economy Analysis of Chinese Capitalism in the Evolving Capitalist World-System”. Feiyang studies the significance of Chinese outbound capital in addressing domestic contradictions of capitalism, promoting China's world (re)integration, and reshaping the capitalist world system.
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Ziying Xu 徐子媖 – PhD Economics (SoSS) 2025
Ziying’s dissertation topic is “Research on Impact of Demographic Structure on Consumption Structure under the Background of Urbanization in China”. Her China-related interests are on “New-Type Urbanization” and “Macro-Economics and Macro-Finance”, such as national consumption and monetary policy.
Email Ziying
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Chengzhi Zhang 张承贽 – PhD Politics (SoSS) 2026
“The Descendants of Immigrants to China: Their Lived Experiences and Negotiations of Identity”. Chengzhi studies the lived experience and identity formation of the second generation of immigrants to China.
View research profile
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Angela Kexin Zhang 张可欣 – PhD Manchester Institute of Education (SEED) 2027
Angela studies higher Technical & Vocational Education & Training (TVET) development in China.
Email Angela
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Yaran Zhang 張亞然 – PhD Architecture (SEED) 2026
Yaran’s dissertation examines the Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale from 2006 to 2023, focusing on the interplay between the architectural exhibitions and their cultural representation. Her research interests include architectural exhibitions, the representation of architecture, and the intersection of cultural and political dimensions within the field.
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Ruoyi Zheng 郑若宜 – PhD Modern Languages and Culture, Italian Studies (SALC) 2028
“Converging Visions: Exploring Intermediality in Italian Neo-Avant-Garde Visual Arts through Chinese Aesthetics”. Ruoyi is interested in Chinese aesthetics and art theory.
View Linkedin profile
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Ernestina Xinyi Zhu 朱欣怡 – PhD Business Management (AMBS) 2025
“The Development of Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in China”. Ernestina studies the China media industry, Chinese studies, publish industries, business management, financial technology (Fintech), and cryptocurrency Trading.
View research profile