My Background

I am a 3rd-year PhD student in English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. Prior to Warwick, I completed my BA in English (2009) and MPhil in Gender Studies (2011) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

My research interests are postcolonial and world literature theory, gender theory and East Asian literature. I specialise in Hong Kong Anglophone writing, which is the topic of my PhD, and Japanese literature. The latter is reflected from my MPhil thesis, titled "'Why are we set in this world?' - Gender Representation in Murakami Haruki's Novels". It is a critical examination of three novels [Norwegian Wood (1987), Sputnik Sweetheart (1999), After Dark (2004)] by the famous Japanese novelist using psychoanalytic gender theories. I am also keen to bring impact to relevant communities with my work. This is shown for example in my position as staff reviewer for Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, where I have established an extensive profile of reviews of Asian literature (see "Literary Reviews" under publications).

A speaker of five languages (Cantonese, English, Mandarin, Japanese and French), I have an immense interest in intercultural communication and linguistics, especially contrastive phonology, accent acquisition and third language acquisition. My BA research essay, titled "'I have to trust you, and you have to trust me' - Communication Strategies Used by a Host Family in the UK", is a small-scale ethnographic study in applied linguistics and intercultural communication.

I write fiction and poetry in my spare time.

Departmental Affiliation: English and Comparative Literary Studies

Supervisor: Dr Rashmi Varma

Visit my publications page.

Read my CV here .

 

My PhD Research Project

My research project adopts a postcolonial perspective to investigate Hong Kong English literature. Hong Kong English literature gains little attention in postcolonial studies or postcolonial literary studies, and it is my intention to explore how postcolonial theory and Hong Kong can have mutual contribution to each other.

Part of the project will include a sociological examination into English literature as a field of production, paying attention to issues such as language politics, representations of social, cultural and political situations in Hong Kong, and blindspots in such representations with respect to linguistic and class privilege.

Know more about my research.

Michael

Yat-him TSANG