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About Yadong Li
I am a PhD student in socio-cultural anthropology. My current research interests lie at the intersection of the anthropology of the state, hope studies, and ruination studies. In my previous research, I focus on how the contemporary fascination with the uncanny can be interpreted under the lens of hope, especially in the context of contemporary China. I have conducted ethnographic research among Chinese UFO enthusiasts. I have also written about urban legends, moral panic, and nostalgia in China. If you are interested in my current or previous projects and also, (the anthropology of) food, please feel free to contact me via email.NBN Episodes hosted by Yadong:
May 2, 2024
The Labor of Hope
Capitalism is not only an economic system but also a system of production and allocation of hope. In Egypt, a generation of young men desire fulfillin…
April 22, 2024
Seeking a Future for the Past
In Seeking a Future for the Past: Space, Power, and Heritage in a Chinese City (U Michigan Press, 2024), Philipp Demgenski examines the complexities a…
April 12, 2024
Precarious Modernities
What does living “precariously” mean in Casablanca? In 2014 it meant being labeled tcharmil (seeming to endanger public order) and swept up by the po…
April 9, 2024
Enchanted Revolution
China’s communist revolution has an intricate relationship with gender and religion. In Enchanted Revolution: Ghosts, Shamans, and Gender Politics in …
April 3, 2024
Hokkaido Dairy Farm
As an ethnography of a Japanese dairy farm while having theoretical values going beyond the specific context, Hokkaido Dairy Farm: Cosmopolitics of Ot…
March 23, 2024
Righteous Revolutionaries
In an era where states and politicians regularly weaponize moral emotions to foment intergroup conflict and violence, understanding the dynamics of vi…
March 20, 2024
Dreams of Flight
Dreams of Flight: The Lives of Chinese Women Students in the West (Duke UP, 2021) explores the significance of transnational educational mobility in t…
March 10, 2024
An Anthropology of Disappearance
All over the world, people disappear from their families, communities and the state’s bureaucratic gaze, as victims of oppressive regimes or while mig…
March 4, 2024
Compliance
Compliance, namely everyday accommodations, is a practice allowing us to work and live with others. Exploring compliance from an anthropological persp…
February 26, 2024
Experiments in Skin
Through a creative focus on skin, in Experiments in Skin: Race and Beauty in the Shadows of Vietnam (Duke UP, 2021), Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu examines the …
February 7, 2024
Deindustrializing Montreal
Point Saint-Charles, a historically white working-class neighborhood with a strong Irish and French presence, and Little Burgundy, a multiracial neigh…
January 29, 2024
Illicit Monogamy
Angel Park is a Mormon fundamentalist polygamous community where plural marriages between one man and multiple women are common. Based on many years o…
January 28, 2024
Amazonian Cosmopolitans
In Amazonian Cosmopolitans: Navigating a Shamanic Cosmos, Shifting Indigenous Policies, and Other Modern Projects (U Nebraska Press, 2022), Suzanne Oa…
December 18, 2023
Borderland Dreams
Migration is a theme intertwined with hopes and dreams. In Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers (Duke UP, 2023), June …
December 17, 2023
The Cancer Within
In The Cancer Within: Reproduction, Cultural Transformation, and Health Care in Romania (Rutgers UP, 2022), Cristina Pop examines cervical cancer in R…
December 11, 2023
Feeding the Hustle
Food is increasingly a subject of interest in social sciences: how we cook, consume, and share food is relevant to our social lives. In Feeding the Hu…
November 17, 2023
A Synthesis of Time
In A Synthesis of Time: Zakat, Islamic Micro-finance and the Question of the Future in 21st-Century Indonesia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Konstantinos…
November 13, 2023
The Currency of Truth
China’s news sector is a place where newsmakers, advertising executives, company bosses, and Party officials engage one another in contingent and evol…
October 13, 2023
If You Should Go at Midnight
Across today’s America, countless people will embark on an adventure. They will prowl among overgrown headstones in forgotten graveyards, stalk throug…
September 30, 2023
Progress in the Balance
Progress and development have long been important issues in anthropology and social sciences. Based on extensive archives and ethnographic fieldwork, …