My research focuses on two interrelated fields. The first concerns digital diaspora studies, in particular migrants in Japan, and I focus on how digital media shape their interpretation and articulation of sense of belonging and national identity. The second concerns digital media, minorities and identities, and I am interested with intersections of queer, mobility, national and transnational identities in the context of globalisation and digitalisation.
Currently I am working on two major projects. The first one is a Kakenhi-funded project called “Mechanisms of self-justified discrimination: the case of trans Chinese in Japan”, in which I explore how queer Chinese conceptualise placeness and placelessness in relation to their everyday life episodes in Japan.
The second one is a book project called “Queering Sino-Japanese migrations: Body, performance, and nationalism”. This project discusses queer diasporas’ ‘affection’ for mobility and connectivity in the East Asian context, based mostly on digital ethnographic research into the role of media in the construction of queers’ diasporic identities.
2023 Project assistant professor, Tokyo College, The University of Tokyo
2023 PhD in International Studies, Waseda University
2017 MSc in International Migration and Public Policy, LSE
2014 MSc in Urbanisation and Development, LSE
Essays:
Wang, X.P. (Forthcoming in 2023). Digital Space and its Publicness. Anthropology News.
Referred articles:
Wang, X.P. (Forthcoming in 2023). Chinese Trans Women in Japan and Their Embodied Search for Sexuality in the Online-Offline Continuum. Transfers: Special Issue in Migrants and Their Smartphones: Interlaced Mobilities Online and Offline.
Wang, X.P. (2020). Digital Technology, Physical Spaces, and the Notion of Belonging among Chinese Migrants in Japan. Asiascape: Digital Asia, 7 (2020), pp. 211-233.
Wang, X.P. (2020). Chinese Migrants’ Sense of Belonging in Japan: Between Digital and Physical Spaces. Migration Research Series No. 61. Geneva: United Nations – International Organization for Migration, pp. 1-13.
Wang, X.P. (2019). Development Induced Migration and Institutionalised Discrimination: Differential Citizenship and Internal Migrants’ Self- Identity in China. Journal of Internal Displacement: Special Issue on the Future of Internal Displacement and Sustainable Development, 9 (1), pp. 51-73.
Book chapters:
Wang, X.P. (Forthcoming in 2023). (Dis)connectivity and (Im)mobility – Digital Gender Performance and Chinese Trans Women in Japan. In Beatrice Zani and Isabelle Cheng ed., Performing in Two Worlds: Intimacy, Entrepreneurship and Activism of East Asian Migrants Online and Offline. London: Anthem Press.
Wang, X.P. (Forthcoming in 2023). COVID-19 and the Gendered Vulnerability among Chinese Female Migrants in the UK. In Simeng Wang and Thais França ed., Transformations and Continuities: Chinese diasporas in Europe in the COVID-19 pandemic. Leiden: BRILL.
Wang, X.P. (2022). Studying Digital Media in Diasporic Transnationalism Context – The Case of International Migrants in Japan. In Forum Mithani and Griseldis Kirsch ed., Handbook of Japanese Media and Popular Culture in Transition. Tokyo: Japan Documents, pp. 244-259.
Wang, X.P. (2022). Building a Life on the Soil of the Ultimate Other: WeChat and Belonging among Chinese Migrants in Japan. In Wanning Sun and Haiqing Yu ed., WeChat Diaspora: Digital Transnationalism in the Era of China’s Rise. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 171-190.
