Professor Huike Wen received her B.A. and a M.A. in Ancient Chinese Civilization in China. She completed her second M.A. in Asian Language and Literature and received her Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Iowa. At Willamette University, Professor Wen teaches Gender and Mass Media in Asia, Media and Society in Asia, Media, Consumption and Culture, and Chinese language classes at various levels.
Because of her education in both China and the US, Professor Wen has a broad academic interest that covers history, literature, and communication studies. She is interested in studying the interaction of global, regional, and local cultural productions and circulations from the perspectives of critical media theory, media history, and gender studies. Professor Wen is the author of “Television and the Modernization Ideal in 1980s China” (Roman and Little Field Publishing Group, 2013). She has also published in English in ASIA Network Exchange: A Journal for Asian Studies in the Liberal Arts, Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture and Media Studies, Journal of Communication Inquiry, and in Chinese in various Chinese academic journals, such as Journal of Sichuan University, Journal of Southwest University for Nationalities, and Light Vehicles. She has authored the “Auto Forum” discussing auto culture for Sohu.com, one of the two largest Chinese internet portals. She has also contributed to Chinese Reading World, an online reading practice system designed for Chinese learners.
Besides a book manuscript on Love and Sentiments in Chinese Television, Professor Wen is currently working on several projects: one examines the legacy of Lin Huiyin, the first female architect and a contributor of modern Chinese poems in current Chinese popular culture; another explores romanticism and technology in current Chinese culture; the last project studies how media industry uses “history” and “love” to create a virtual space for cultural communication and consumption in East Asia and its impact on gender construction in present-day China.
Prior to coming to Willamette, Professor Wen had taught courses on media and communication theory, gender, race and class in media, rhetoric and public speaking at the University of Iowa and taught Chinese, as a foreign language, at the University of Iowa, Beloit College and Middlebury College. During her free time, she enjoys hiking and interesting conversations.
Professor Wen has been invited to give talks on “television in China since the 1980s” and “gender and sexism in popular culture”. She is interested in exchanging knowledge and ideas about Chinese and Asian media culture, and Chinese language and communication through public lectures, presentations and conversations.
Professor Wen is interested in presenting these topics in the public:
Television in China
Gender and mass media
Media censorship and creativity
Media copyright and its paradox
Technology and Communication
A comparative history of modern media technology
Auto culture—a comparative study between China and the US
Professor Wen teaches these courses on a regular basis:
Asia 201: Gateway to East Asia
CHNSE 231, 232: Intermediate Chinese
CHNSE 331, 332: Advanced Chinese
CHNSE258: Gender and Mass Media in Asia
CHNSE269: Media and Society in China
CHNSE 499W: Senior Seminar
IDS 101-41: Media, Consumption and Culture
Professor Wen teaches these courses on a need basis:
CHNSE 131, 132: Elementary Chinese
CHNSE 490, 491: Reading and Conference
ASIA 202: Asian Studies Colloquium
ASIA 258: Topics in Asian Studies
CHNSE 431: Reading the Humanities
CHNSE 432: Introduction to Classical Chinese Texts and Thoughts
WGS 499: Women and Gender Studies Senior Thesis
Journal Articles
Wen, Huike. “Radical or Conventional? - Portrayal in Chinese Media of the Relationship between an Older Woman and a Younger Man.” Journal of Research in Gender Studies 5.2 (2015): 356.