Introduction/bio:

Gladys Pak Lei Chong is Associate Professor at the department of Humanities and Creative Writing at Hong Kong Baptist University. She received her PhD in Media and Cultural Studies and MA (cum laude) in Migration and Ethnic Studies from the University of Amsterdam. Before joining Hong Kong Baptist University, she taught at the International School of Humanities and Social Sciences (ISHSS), University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam University College (AUC).

She is the author of Chinese Subjectivities and the Beijing Olympics (Rowman & Littlefield International 2017), and co-editor of Trans-Asia as Method: Theory and Practices (Rowman & Littlefield International 2020) and Critiquing Communication Innovation: New Media in a Multipolar World (Michigan State University Press 2022). Her work has appeared in journals, such as Men & Masculinities, interconnections: journal of posthumanism, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Global Media and China, Visual Studies, Science, Technology and Society, The Information Society, Chinese Journal of Communication, China Information, International Journal of the History of Sport, and Journal of Current Chinese Affairs. Her research focuses on Chinese governmentality, cultural governance, power-relations, subjectivities, digital humanities, society, science and technology, infrastructure, platformisation, intimacy, security and surveillance, youth culture, gender, place-making. Her research on youth aspirations (Project No. 22609415), and technology, security, and risk (Project No. 12610118) are funded by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council. She has also collaborated with Professor Giselinde Kuipers and Professor Yiu Fai Choa on research into facial beauty and social distinction in Hong Kong.

She was an academic fellow in the Study of the U.S. Institute (SUSI) on U.S. Culture, Identity, and Society, funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in 2024. In 2025, she was awarded a Research Fellowship at the Joint Center for Advanced Studies “Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogu with China”, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, and a SCIAS-fellow at the Seibold-Collegium Institute for Advanced Studies in Würzburg.

Teaching:

The Politics of Ordinary (2026-present); Research Methods in the Humanities (2025–present); The Study of Culture (2023–present); Introduction to the Humanities (2022–present,HKBU); Introduction to Western Classical Culture (2022–present); The Classical Heritage (2014—2022); Horror Film and Fiction (2014—2022); The Critical and Creative Spirit: The Case of Historical Fiction (2014—2022); Changing Times Changing Youth (2017—2022)

Research areas:

Governmentality, Process of Subjectification, Cultural Governance, Power-relations, Sinofuturity, Society, Science and Technology, Digital Humanities, Infrastructure,
Platformisation, Security, Surveillance, Risks, Social Credit, Globalisation, the Politics of Ordinary, Intimacy, Nationalism, Gender, Politics of Identity, Politics of Representation, Place-making, Interdisciplinary Studies, (Trans)Asia as Method, Post-humanism

1. 2019-2021, Project Applicant, “In the Eye of Beholder: Facial Beauty and Social Distinction in Hong Kong”, Hong Kong Baptist University – Dr. Hung Hin Shiu Development Fund (HKD 100,000)
2. 2018-19, Principal Investigator, “Smart Living among Chinese Youth? Issues of Security, Risk and Surveillance through an Investigation of Smart Home, Cashless Payment and Facial Recognition”, Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF), University Grants Council. (Project number 12610118, HKD 305,000)
3. 2015-17, Principal Investigator, “Governing Desire in a Globalising World: A Comparative Study of Youth in Hong Kong and Beijing”, Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF) The Early Career Scheme (ECS), University Grants Council. (Project number 22609415, HKD 307,400)
4. 2017, Principal Investigator, “Watch Over or Over-Watched? Chinese Youth, Dataveillance and Security”, Hong Kong Baptist University – Faculty Research Grant (HKD 50,000)
5. 2014 (February to August), LEWI Scholar-in-Residency programme to conduct post-doctoral research on Chinese Youth & Desire
6. 2013, IIAS Post-doc Fellowship 2013 (Project Global Asia): A 6-month grant (Euro 12,000) for turning my dissertation into monograph
7. 2011, The Lisbon Consortium and Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, full funding for attending the Lisbon Consortium in Lisbon 2011
8. 2009, The European Union, full funding for attending the European Summer School in Cultural Studies in Copenhagen, Denmark
9. 2009, The European Union, full funding for attending the Postgraduate Research Summer School in Oslo, Norway
10. 2007-2012, PhD Research Grant (Full Scholarship), “Celebrations and Contestations of Chineseness: The Beijing 2008 Olympics and 21st Century Imaginations of Place, Culture and Identity”, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)

Kuipers, Giselinde, Yiu Fai Chow, Gladys Pak Lei Chong, and Wanying Zhou. 2026. “Beauty as Evaluation.” In Handbook of Beauty and Inequality, edited by Giselinde Kuipers and Outi Sarpila, 91–105. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978–3–032–08035–6_7

Chong, Gladys Pak Lei. 2025 online first. “BAT celebrity tech entrepreneurs and Chinese masculinities in the era of the global digital economy”. Men & Masculinities. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1097184X251343621

Chong, Gladys Pak Lei. 2024. “The failure of commons? The Obscure Beijing
mushrooms and the mycelial networks of transformation in everyday life”.
interconnections: journal of posthumanism 3(2): 51–75. https://doi.org/10.26522/posthumanismjournal.v3i2.4856

Chong, Gladys Pak Lei, and Jeroen de Kloet. 2024. “Be strong, be confident: the rise of China and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 25(3): 322–347. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2024.2336726

Chong, Gladys Pak Lei. 2024. “Neither Spectacular nor Ordinary: A Visual Essay on
Imaginations and Homes in Beijing from 2007 to 2019.” Visual Studies 39 (1-2): 87–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2023.2195841

Chong, Gladys Pak Lei. 2023. “Infrastructure at home: Technology, Intimacy, and the
Ageing Subjects in China.” Global Media and China 8(3): 343–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231184109

Chong, Gladys Pak Lei. 2023. “Xiaomi and the Promises of the Good Life? Issues of
Security and Risk in the Making of the Smart Home in China.” Science, Technology
and Society 28(1): 108–127. https://doi.org/10.1177/09717218221075128

Hoyng, Rolien and Gladys Pak Lei Chong. 2022. Critiquing Communication Innovation: New Media in a Multipolar World. Michigan: Michigan State University Press. (series U.S.-China Relations in the Age of Globalisation)

Chong, Gladys Pak Lei, and Jeroen de Kloet. 2022. “Chinas Olympische Winterspiele 2022.” Bundeszentrale fur Politische Bildung. https://www.bpb.de/internationales/asien/china/345240/chinas-olympischewinterspiele-2022

Chong, Gladys Pak Lei. 2020. “Who Wants 9-to-5 Jobs? Chinese Youth, Security and
Precarity.” The Information Society (Special Issue on Fourth Industrial Revolution and Vulnerability) 36(5): 266–278. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2020.1805246

de Kloet, Jeroen, Yiufai Chow, and Gladys Pak Lei Chong, eds. 2020. Trans-Asia as
Method: Theory and Practices (Asian Cultural Studies: Transnational and Dialogic
Approaches). London: Rowman and Littlefield.

2018–2022, Principal Investigator, “Smart Living among Chinese Youth? Issues of Security, Risk and Surveillance through an Investigation of Smart Home, Cashless Payment and Facial Recognition”, Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF), University Grants Council. (Project number 12610118, HKD 305,000)

2019–2021, Project Applicant, “In the Eye of Beholder: Facial Beauty and Social Distinction in Hong Kong”, Hong Kong Baptist University – Dr. Hung Hin Shiu Development Fund (HKD 100,000)

2017, Principal Investigator, “Watch Over or Over-Watched? Chinese Youth, Dataveillance and Security”, Hong Kong Baptist University – Faculty Research Grant (HKD 50,000)

2015–2017, Principal Investigator, “Governing Desire in a Globalising World: A Comparative Study of Youth in Hong Kong and Beijing”, Hong Kong General Research Fund (GRF) The Early Career Scheme (ECS), University Grants Council. (Project number 22609415, HKD 307,400)

2014 (February to August), LEWI Scholar-in-Residency programme to conduct post-doctoral research on Chinese Youth & Desire

2017, Principal Investigator, “Watch Over or Over-Watched? Chinese Youth, Dataveillance and Security”, Hong Kong Baptist University – Faculty Research Grant (HKD 50,000)

2013, IIAS Post-doc Fellowship 2013 (Project Global Asia): A 6-month grant (Euro 12,000) for turning my dissertation into monograph

2011, The Lisbon Consortium and Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, full funding for attending the Lisbon Consortium in Lisbon 2011

2009, The European Union, full funding for attending the European Summer School in Cultural Studies in Copenhagen, Denmark

2009, The European Union, full funding for attending the Postgraduate Research Summer School in Oslo, Norway

2007–2012, PhD Research Grant (Full Scholarship), “Celebrations and Contestations of Chineseness: The Beijing 2008 Olympics and 21st Century Imaginations of Place, Culture and Identity”, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)