Eve Lin

PhD Candidate

My research focuses on Post-Mao Chinese society, especially on the changes in China’s cultural field under the impacts of commercialization and consumerism during the last 30 years. More specifically, I am currently working on a study of privately-run commercial bookstores in present-day P. R. China. In it I intend to: 1. excavate the social functions of those bookstores and the roles of today’s readers-consumers, 2. observe the reader-consumer’s way of interacting with the bookstores, and 3. shed light on the nature and traits of contemporary Chinese society through the insights gained in these bookstores.

I have been well-trained in literary criticism and cultural studies, and I hold a Ph.D. in English language literature for my previous academic training. My current research focuses on the places of reading in contemporay China which is heading its way to a full-fledge consumerist society. I find my new research topic (it is also my second doctoral program) as challenging as it is full of opportunity in the process of expanding of my research fields. With reasonable hope, I expect to bring about a comprehensive view, a comparative awareness, and resourceful and sensible methodological choosing in my study of the contemporary Chinese reading culture.