Xiaoqiao Xu’s research covers a wide range of topics, from late imperial China to modern China, with a particular focus on women’s literary and theatrical productions. Her work explores the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity, challenging the neatness of the contrast between the old and the new. Xiaoqiao analyzes female gazing and recurring objects, as well as female playwrights’ engagement with gender politics to gain a deeper understanding of the roles women played in Chinese society. In her current research, she examines women’s engagement with religion, particularly Buddhism and Daoism. Xiaoqiao’s teaching and research inform one another. She enjoys interacting with students, and sharing her excitement for Chinese literature and cinema.

Book Review for Made-up Asians: Yellowface During the Exclusion Era, upcoming in Journal of American Drama and Theatre, fall issue, 2023

“Desire for Connection: Qiao Ying and Portrait-Reading”, Asian Theatre Journal, vol. 39, no. 2, 2022, pp. 376-390, University of Hawai‘i Press, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/869903

“Stabilizing the Empire: Western Calendric Astronomy as Statecraft 2022 during the Kangxi Reign, 1667-1720”, The Quiet Corner Interdisciplinary Journal, vol. 3, iss. 1, 2022, available at https://opencommons.uconn.edu/tqc/vol3/iss1/2

Emerging Scholar Award, Association for Asian Performance

Teaching Excellence, Office of the Provost, University of Connecticut