Book Talk: Shanghu

The University of Chicago Center in Beijing

20th floor, Culture Plaza
No. 59A Zhong Guan Cun Street
Haidian District Beijing 100872

Join us at the University of Chicago Center in Beijing for a discussion of Shanghu (In Service, 2026), written by Yin Xiaowei, a domestic worker and writer who currently lives in Beijing. Yin Xiaowei will be joined by Mei Ruo, founder of Beijing Hongyan Social Work Service Center, Huang Yu, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Minzu University of China, and Paola Iovene, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese Literature at University of Chicago. Together they will discuss how the book came into being and the ways in which literature can illuminate different forms of invisible labor and silenced violence.

Click HERE to register.

About the Author

Yin Xiaowei, a native of Yi'an County, Heilongjiang Province. She used to be a tower crane operator at a construction engineering company. Laid off in 2000, she came to Beijing in 2006 and has worked as a domestic worker ever since.

She keeps writing in her spare time between housekeeping assignments. Her pen names are Chen'ai and Mochen.

Discussants

Mei Ruo | Founder of Beijing Hongyan Social Work Service Center 

Huang Yu | Associate Professor, Minzu University of China

Paola Iovene | Associate Professor, University of Chicago 

Language: Chinese