Shuhua Chen
About
Research Project: MidWay (ERC)
Dr. Shuhua Chen is a researcher at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture (KULT) at NTNU. She is currently joining the five-year project 'A Middle Way? Probing Sufficiency through Meat and Milk in China' (MidWay - ERC Starting Grant), which aims to gain a better understanding of the concept 'sufficiency' using the cases of meat and milk production and consumption in China.
Her postdoc project at the Temporalities of Mobility and Migration, Department of Social Anthropology, NTNU (2020-2022) focuses on temporalities of home-in-movement, examining the challenging concept of ‘home’ in the contemporary world that is marked by its unprecedented mobility, and places individual experience as a focus of concerns upon cosmopolitan stands. It explores the interior experience of migration and home in different timescales: in moments, throughout the years of a life-course, and across generations.
Before joining NTNU, Shuhua worked as a research fellow at the University of Birmingham (UK), where she led qualitative field research in China for the EU Horizon 2020 project AGRUMIG on migration and rural change in Europe, Asia and Africa. Shuhua received her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews in 2018. The research explores the Chinese migrants' phenomenology of home and their imaginary and practical construction of home and homemaking. She was an invited visiting scholar at the University at Buffalo (US) with the award of Nila T. Gnamm Junior Faculty Research Fund after her PhD and she taught at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews. Shuhua is also an associate at the Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies, University of St Andrews (UK).
Research Group Associated:
Centre for Energy, Climate and the Environment
Temporalities of Mobility and Migration
Research Interests
- Anthropology of food, urban foodscapes, "light-meal" movement in China, sustainability
- Anthropology of China, ethnography of urban China, Rural-urban migration in China
- History and anthropology, archives, writing memory, qiaopi remittance letters
- Home-in-movement, phenomenology of home, time & temporalities
- Cosmopolitan studies, existential anthropology, sensuous ethnography
Scientific Academic and Artistic Work
A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications here.
Journal publications
Chen, S. (2022) Temporary Couples? A Chinese Migrant's Dream Narrative. Anthropology and Humanism.
Chen, S. (2022) Vulnerable homes on the move: An introduction (co-authored with Sara Bonfanti and Aurora Massa). Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology (Issue 92).
Chen, S. (2017) Cosmopolitan imagination: A methodological quest for qiaopi archival research. Yearbook in Cosmopolitan Studies. Vol. 3.
Chen, S. (2017) To my city: Urbanisation and industrialisation in contemporary China (creative submission). The Unfamiliar: An Anthropological Journal. Vol. 7 (1).
Chen, S. (2013) Making home away from home: A case study of archival research of the Nanyang emigration in China. Durham Anthropology Journal. Vol. 18(2).
Books and Special Issues
Chen, S. (2022) Theme Section: Vulnerable Homes on the Move (as co-guest editors with Sara Bonfanti and Aurora Massa). Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology (Issue 92).
Chen, S. and Kelley, A. (2014) Approaching letters and letter writing. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Part of book/report
Chen, S. (2021) The taste of home: Migrant foodscapes in marketplaces in Shantou, China. Food, Senses and the City.
Chen, S. (2018) Homeawayness and life-project building: Making home among rural-urban migration in China. Travelling towards home: Mobilities and homemaking.
Chen, S. (2015) Making home, making sense of the world: Archival research with qiaopi letters. Private and public voices: An interdisciplinary approach to letters and letter writing.
Chen, S. (2015) The Qiaopi Museum, Shantou, Guangdong, China. Diaspora and Migration Studies, Dissertation Reviews.
Chen, S. (2014) Writing letter and making home: Archival research of qiaopi and Chinese emigrants. Approaching letters and letter writing.
Chen, S. and Kelley, A. (2014) Approach to letter and letter writing: An introduction. Approaching letters and letter writing.
Awards
AGRUMIG EU H2020 Postdoc Research Fellowship (2020)
Nila T. Gnamm Junior Faculty Research Fund (2019)
First Prize of David Riches Medal (2014)
Ladislav Holy Memorial Trust (2014)
The Great Britain-China Educational Trust (2013)
RC21 Fellowship for the RC21-IJURR-FURS Summer School (2013)
Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies Scholarship, University of St Andrews (2012-17)
The Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies Fellowship (2012-14)
Scotland’s Saltire Scholarship (2011)
Publications
2022
-
Bonfanti, Sara;
Chen, Shuhua;
Massa, Aurora.
(2022)
Vulnerable homes on the move .
Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology
Academic article
-
Chen, Shuhua;
Bonfanti, Sara;
Massa, Aurora.
(2022)
Focaal Theme Section: Vulnerable Homes. Guest Editors (Sara Bonfanti, Shuhua Chen, Aurora Massa)
1. Vulnerable homes on the move: An introduction
by Sara Bonfanti, Shuhua Chen, and Aurora Massa.
2. Struggling for home where home is not meant to be
by Anne Sigfrid Grønseth and Ragne Øwre Thorshaug.
3. “All we need is a home”
by Aurora Massa.
4. From breadwinner to bedridden
by Sara Bonfanti. .
Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology
Editorial
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2022)
Temporary Couples? A Chinese Migrant's Dream Narrative.
Anthropology and Humanism
Academic article
2021
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2021)
The taste of home: migrant foodscapes in marketplaces in Shantou, China.
Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
2018
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2018)
Homeawayness and life-project building: Making home among rural-urban migration in China.
Berghahn Books
Chapter
2017
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2017)
Cosmopolitan imagination: A methodological quest for qiaopi archival research.
Yearbook in Cosmopolitan Studies
Academic article
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2017)
To my city: Urbanisation and industrialisation in contemporary China.
Unfamiliar: An Anthropological Journal
Academic article
2015
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2015)
Making Home, Making Sense of the World: Archival Research with Qiaopi Letters.
Chapter
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2015)
Chen, S. (2015) The Qiaopi Museum, Shantou, Guangdong, China. Diaspora and Migration Studies, Dissertation Reviews. .
Website (informational material)
2014
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2014)
Writing Letters and Making Home: Archival Research of Qiaopi and Chinese Emigrants.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2014)
Approaching Letters and Letter Writing.
The Inter-Disciplinary Press
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
2013
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2013)
Making home away from home: A case study of archival research of the Nanyang emigration in China.
Durham Anthropological Journal
Academic article
Journal publications
-
Bonfanti, Sara;
Chen, Shuhua;
Massa, Aurora.
(2022)
Vulnerable homes on the move .
Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology
Academic article
-
Chen, Shuhua;
Bonfanti, Sara;
Massa, Aurora.
(2022)
Focaal Theme Section: Vulnerable Homes. Guest Editors (Sara Bonfanti, Shuhua Chen, Aurora Massa)
1. Vulnerable homes on the move: An introduction
by Sara Bonfanti, Shuhua Chen, and Aurora Massa.
2. Struggling for home where home is not meant to be
by Anne Sigfrid Grønseth and Ragne Øwre Thorshaug.
3. “All we need is a home”
by Aurora Massa.
4. From breadwinner to bedridden
by Sara Bonfanti. .
Focaal: Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology
Editorial
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2022)
Temporary Couples? A Chinese Migrant's Dream Narrative.
Anthropology and Humanism
Academic article
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2017)
Cosmopolitan imagination: A methodological quest for qiaopi archival research.
Yearbook in Cosmopolitan Studies
Academic article
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2017)
To my city: Urbanisation and industrialisation in contemporary China.
Unfamiliar: An Anthropological Journal
Academic article
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2013)
Making home away from home: A case study of archival research of the Nanyang emigration in China.
Durham Anthropological Journal
Academic article
Books
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2014)
Approaching Letters and Letter Writing.
The Inter-Disciplinary Press
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
Part of book/report
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2021)
The taste of home: migrant foodscapes in marketplaces in Shantou, China.
Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2018)
Homeawayness and life-project building: Making home among rural-urban migration in China.
Berghahn Books
Chapter
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2015)
Making Home, Making Sense of the World: Archival Research with Qiaopi Letters.
Chapter
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2014)
Writing Letters and Making Home: Archival Research of Qiaopi and Chinese Emigrants.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
INFORMASJONSMATR
-
Chen, Shuhua.
(2015)
Chen, S. (2015) The Qiaopi Museum, Shantou, Guangdong, China. Diaspora and Migration Studies, Dissertation Reviews. .
Website (informational material)
Media
2022
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LectureSimonsen, Jan Ketil; Chen, Shuhua. (2022) Encounters between Barth and Rapport's methodological individualism. Department of social anthropology, NTNU Department seminar , Trondheim 2022-11-21 - 2022-11-21
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LectureChen, Shuhua. (2022) Homing beyond boundaries: An open conversation. Norsk Antropologisk Forening Antropologidagene i Trondheim 2022 , Trondheim 2022-03-18 - 2022-03-18
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2022) 'Silver Letters': Migrant Inscription on Space and Time in late Qing and Modern China. NTNU Migration Plus (Sociology; KULT; Anthropology etc) Seminar for Migrasjonsforskingsmiljøer - NTNU , Trondheim 2022-06-08 - 2022-06-08
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2022) Fleeting moments that last: Rapport's Zine. University of St Andrews Emeritus Seminar Nigel Rapport at St Andrews, Lower College Hall , St Andrews 2022-04-12 - 2022-04-12
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2022) Journeying toward home? Everyday life experience of homeawayness among rural migrants in urban China. Network for Asian Studies, UiO; NTNU The Annual Asianet Conference in 2022: Asia and Fragmented Globalisations , Trondheim 2022-06-16 - 2022-06-17
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2022) Panel organised (9 papers)--Home and away: Diverging Cross-Cultural Practices . Network for Asian Studies, UiO; NTNU The Annual Asianet Conference in 2022: Asia and Fragmented Globalisations , Trondheim 2022-06-16 - 2022-06-17
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2022) Homing as de-labelling: A phenomenological approach to Chinese migrant letters. European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) EASA2022: Transformation, Hope and the Commons , Belfast 2022-07-26 - 2022-07-29
2021
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2021) ‘A Massively Single Number’: Life of Chinese factory peasant-workers, Poetry and Anthropology. Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK ASA 2021: RESPONSIBILITY , University of St Andrews 2021-03-29 - 2021-04-02
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2021) Writing together to author a better life: Peer learning, support and sociability during the pandemic. EASA-Teaching Anthropology Network Teaching and Learning Anthropology during the Pandemic. Dilemmas, Challenges and Opportunities 2021-03-17 -
2019
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2019) Movement within Movement: The temporal movement of consciousness within the epistolary practice of Chinese migrants’. 2019 New York Conference on Asian Studies , New Paltz, USA 2019-10-05 -
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2019) The Migrant Inscriptions on Space and Time: Close readings of Chinese migration to Southeast Asia, 1820 – 1980. University at Buffalo Public talk@ University at Buffalo 2019-10-08 -
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2019) Chinese Studies on Anthropology and Migration in China. University at Buffalo Chinese Studies @ University at Buffalo, SUNY 2019-10-09 -
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2019) Workshop: Restoring the “Voices” of Migrants: Conducting archival research using overseas Chinese family letters (qiaopi). Asian Studies Program - University at Buffalo Workshop on Migrant Letters 2019-09-24 -
2018
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Academic lectureChen, Shuhua. (2018) Representation of Homemaking, Lived Experience and Inner Turbulence: Archival research of overseas Chinese qiaopi remittance letters. SOAS Art, Materiality and Representation Conference, SOAS, UK 2018-06-03 -