The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is pleased to feature Professor Xiaolu MA, Associate Professor in the Division of Humanities, whose work rethinks how modern literature travels, and how meaning changes as it moves. Trained in comparative literature (PhD, Harvard University), Prof. Ma brings a distinctly transregional lens to the study of modernity, tracing cultural encounters across China, Japan, and Russia and the wider Eurasian world.

At the heart of her research is a simple but powerful idea: cultural exchange is rarely a one-way passage from “source” to “target.” It is often multi-step, multilingual, and mediated, shaped by relay points that can subtly (or radically) transform interpretation. This approach comes alive in her research on translation, circulation, and what she describes as “relay transculturation,” where texts pass through intermediary cultures and accrue layered variants along the way.

Prof. Ma is the author of Transpatial Modernity: Chinese Cultural Encounters with Russia via Japan (1880-1930) (Harvard University Asia Center, 2024), an in-depth account of the triangular relationship among Chinese, Japanese, and Russian literature and culture in the modern era. This book has received honorable mentions for both the Anna Balakian Prize and University of Southern California Book Prize in Literary and Cultural Studies. Her work has also appeared in leading venues such as PMLA, the Journal of Asian Studies, and Comparative Literature Studies.

At HKUST, Prof. Ma contributes to a globally engaged learning environment, where conversations across backgrounds and disciplines expand how students understand texts, history, and the making of modern culture.