Hua Hsu (born 1977)[1] is an American writer and academic, based in New York City. He is a professor of English at Bard College and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Previously he taught at Vassar College. His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as well as public perceptions of diversity and multiculturalism. He is the author of A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific. His second book, Stay True: A Memoir, is forthcoming in September 2022.
Hua Hsu | |
---|---|
Born | 1977 (age 46–47) |
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley Harvard University |
Occupation(s) | Professor, writer |
Employer(s) | Vassar College The New Yorker |
Notable work | A Floating Chinaman |
Website | huascene |
Early life
A second-generation Taiwanese American, Hsu was born in 1977 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois[2] before moving to Plano, then Richardson, Texas.[3] His family then moved to southern California,[3] then ultimately Cupertino, California,[4] where his father was an engineer; his mother stayed at home with Hua.[3] The family lived in Cupertino from about the time Hua was nine to 18, though his father moved to Taiwan to pursue work and Hua often spent summers and other school vacations there.[5] In Cupertino, Hsu attended high school with Ben Cho, who went on to become a fashion designer.[6]
Hsu attended college at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied political science.[3] He graduated in 1999.[3] He next attended Harvard University to study Asian-American literature in graduate school,[3] earning a PhD in the History of American Civilization department (American Studies) in 2008.[7] Louis Menand advised his dissertation,[8] entitled "Pacific Crossings: China, the United States, and the Transpacific Imagination."[7]
Career
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Hsu was a tenured associate professor of English and director of American Studies at Vassar College[9] until 2022 when he became professor of English at Bard College.[10] Since 2017 he has also been a staff writer at The New Yorker.[11] His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as well as public perceptions of diversity and multiculturalism. Other research work and interests include studies of literary history and arts criticism.[12]
Hsu has been a fellow at New America, a public policy think tank and a contributor to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Slate, and The Wire.[13][14][15] His 2012 essay for Lucky Peach about suburban Chinatowns was nominated for a 2012 James Beard Award for food writing.[16] He is a board member of the Asian American Writers' Workshop.[17] His book, A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure Across the Pacific,[18] was published in June 2016 by Harvard University Press.[19] He was a 2016 National Fellow for the New America Foundation.[20]
Hsu's second book, Stay True: A Memoir, is forthcoming from Doubleday in September 2022. It received a starred review in Publishers Weekly.[21]
Personal life
Bibliography
Books
- Hsu, Hua (2016). A floating Chinaman : fantasy and failure across the Pacific. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP.
Essays and reporting
- Hsu, Hua (April 18, 2012). "All Hail the Chairmen: Jonathan Olivares's "Taxonomy of Office Chairs"". Los Angeles Review of Books.
- — (September 5, 2012). "Michael K. Williams Reveals His Omar Mix". Vulture.
- — (December 13, 2012). "Wokking the Suburbs". Lucky Peach.
- — (March 7, 2016). "The struggle : Macklemore wrestles with his place in hip-hop". The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker. 92 (4): 70–71.[a]
- — (October 3, 2016). "Bon Iver's new voice". The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker.
- — (September 21, 2016). "The Critic Who Convinced Me That Criticism Could Be Art". The New Yorker.
- — (January–February 2009). "The end of White America?". U.S. The Atlantic.
- — (January 4, 2017). "Listening to George Michael in Taiwan". Cultural Comment [web only]. The New Yorker.
- — (April 24, 2017). "Praise songs : Alice Coltrane in Sanskrit". The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker. 93 (10): 98–99.[b]
- — (May 1, 2017). "Legacy media : Kendrick Lamar's sense of debt to those who came before". The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker. 93 (11): 74–75.[c]
- — (September 18, 2017). "Rostam Batmanglij defines his musical identity". Pop Music. The New Yorker.
- — (December 4, 2017). "Forward march : Bjõrk's visions of the future". The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker. 93 (39): 62–64.[d]
- — (May 20, 2019). "Machine yearning : Holly Herndon's search for a new art form for our tech obsessions". The Critics. Pop Music. The New Yorker. 95 (13): 83–84.[e]
- — (December 9, 2019). "Burial's Search for Fleeting Moments". Pop Music. The New Yorker.
- — (January 6, 2020). "Exclude me in : in the seventes, a group of Asian–American writers decided it was their turn". The Critics. Books. The New Yorker. 95 (43): 58–63.[f]
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- Notes
- ^ Online version is titled "Mackelmore, the hip-hop villain".
- ^ Online version is titled "Alice Coltrane’s devotional music".
- ^ Online version is titled "Kendrick Lamar's holy spirit".
- ^ Online version is titled "Bjõrk's visions of an enchanted future".
- ^ Online version is titled "Electronic pop for the surveillance era".
- ^ Online version is titled "The Asian-American canon breakers".
See also
- Chinese people in New York City
- New Yorkers in journalism
- Taiwanese people in New York City
- The Hanging on Union Square by H. T. Tsiang, whom Hsu refers to in A Floating Chinaman.
References
- ^ Spaeth, Ryu (September 20, 2022). "Hua Hsu Is True to the Game". Vulture. Retrieved September 20, 2022.
- ^ Hsu, Hua (August 15, 2022). "My Dad and Kurt Cobain". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Episode 29: Professor and New Yorker Writer Hua Hsu by Mary H.K. Choi". Hey, Cool Job. March 16, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ "Angry Reader of the Week: Hua Hsu".
- ^ Hsu, Hua (June 18, 2012). "How Rock Ballads Brought My Father's American Dream To Life". NPR. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ Hsu, Hua (June 29, 2017). "Ben Cho, a New York Icon Who Gave Me a Sense of What's Possible". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ a b "Alumni Publications". American Studies – The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ Mistry, Anupa (June 9, 2016). "Yaa Gyasi And Hua Hsu Talk About Writing". The Fader. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ "Hua Hsu - English Department - Vassar College". english.vassar.edu. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
- ^ College, Bard. "Hua Hsu". www.bard.edu. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
- ^ "Hua Hsu". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
- ^ "Vassar Faculty and Staff". Vassar English Department. Vassar College. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
- ^ "Hua Hsu, New America Fellow". New America. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
- ^ "Authors: Hua Hsu". Slate.
- ^ "Author: Hua Hsu". The Atlantic.
- ^ Forbes, Paula (March 18, 2013). "Here Are the 2013 James Beard Awards Finalists". Eater. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
- ^ Romano, Evan (March 13, 2017). "Brooklyn 100 Influencer: Hua Hsu, The 'New Yorker'". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
- ^ Nguyen, Viet Thanh (July 22, 2016). "Reconsidering the Work of a Chinese Immigrant Writer of the 1930s". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
- ^ "Contributors: Hua Hsu". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 16, 2016.
- ^ "Hua Hsu". New America. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
- ^ "Stay True: A Memoir by Hua Hsu". Publishers Weekly. May 19, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
- ^ "The 100 Most Influential People in Brooklyn Culture 2017". Brooklyn Magazine. March 13, 2017. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
External links
- Personal site
- Faculty page at Vassar College
- Hua Hsu, "Wokking the Suburbs", Lucky Peach, 2013
- Author page at The Believer
- Author page at The Atlantic
- Author page at New York magazine
- Author page at Slate
- Author page at The Wire
- Author page at The Village Voice
- Author page at Bookforum
- Author page at Grantland
External links
- Personal site
- Faculty page at Vassar College
- Hua Hsu, "Wokking the Suburbs", Lucky Peach, 2013