
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Research Profile: Huai Bao Dhawa, Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies
Huai Bao Dhawa has lived, studied and worked in China, Canada and the USA, building an impressive list of accomplishments around the globe. In 2011, he began his PhD research in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at SFU under the supervision of Professor Helen Hok-Sze Leung.
Huai Bao Dhawa, aka H. B. Dhawa, is an ABD (PhD candidate) at the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Simon Fraser University. His past year here has been rewarding: As an avid researcher and a prolific writer, he has received 7 awards, including the SSHRC Doctoral Award, and has had four refereed articles, one film review and one feature article accepted for publication in two European journals, two USA journals, one Chinese journal and one Canadian newspaper. He also has two forthcoming articles in two core USA journals.
In October 2012, China’s prestigious New World Press launched Huai's second book, Change Destiny, a philosophical study of 42 chapters in the Chinese language on diverse topics. In this book Huai largely develops Jung's concept of "Synchronicity." The book has been collected by the American Library of Congress. Before settling into academia, Huai worked with a cosmetic surgery clinic to create a 52 episode reality TV show. Huai also produced, wrote and directed the full length feature film, Fearless from Red China, which has been released in DVD in the USA.
Huai's long analytical article of over 9,000 words solicited by Global Chinese Press (Canada), The Murder of Lin Jun: Sexuality, Race, Mentality, Immigrants’ Life and Publicity, has been reprinted by several other prominent Chinese media to reach a much wider audience worldwide. In Huai's publication he has coined such new concepts and terminology as "moral terrorism," "the law of attraction" in interracial desires, and "the natural selection" in the aesthetic regime of theatre.
Huai's proposed doctoral research focuses on the cross-gender performance in theatre. Inasmuch as theatre is the epitome of reality, the transgressive potential of performing out of one’s biological gender is peculiar not only to one individual or one theatrical form, but to humankind in general. Cross-gender performance is simply one of the “symptoms” of the transgressive instinct, while theatre has created a safe space for its presentation. Huai has, therefore, coined the term “transgressionism” to define this instinct and desire to transgress. This term, along with a grouping of ideas, formulates a new school of thought and subverts the modern beliefs and classifications of gender and sexual deviance, with a strategic significance in building a more inclusive coalition of sexual minorities.
In Huai's publication he has coined such new concepts and terminology as "moral terrorism," "the law of attraction" in interracial desires, "the natural selection" in the aesthetic regime of theatre and "positive fatalism."
Huai's senior advisor is Dr. Helen Leung, whose research expertise is on trans theory, media and film. Huai is also working with two other distinguished scholars on his committee: Dr. Peter Dickinson, from SFU’s English Department, is a specialist in theatre, gender and performance studies. Dr. Elizabeth Wichmann-Walczak, from the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Hawaii, is the first non-Chinese to perform jingju in the People’s Republic of China and the first honorary (and first non-Chinese) member of the National Xiqu Institute.
In his spare time, Huai enjoys reading Jung, Freud, Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Foucault. Huai has appeared on CNN for one of his sociological projects and National Geographic Channel for a marketing campaign on cosmetic surgery.
- Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, SFU
- Supervisor: Dr. Helen Hok-Sze Leung
- Feature film: Fearless from Red China
- CNN interview: "China's sexual revolution"
- Facebook: Huai Bao
- Personal blog: 灵性回归 达哇世界
- "White Haired Girl" (ppt): Presentation at UBC about China's feminism and revolutionary ballet
- Journal of Community Positive Practices: "Buddhism: Rethinking Sexual Misconduct"
- Journal of Homosexuality: "A Jihad for Love"
- Global Chinese Press: "The Murder and Dismemberment of Lin Jun: Sexuality, Race, Mentality, Immigrants’ Life and Publicity" (page 2, page 3)
- R Bao, Huai. 2013. An East-West Comparative Study on Psychology of Divination: The Formation of “Positive Fatalism” and the Difference Between Chinese and American Mentalities. In International East-West Studies (China).
- R Bao, Huai. 2012. Natural Selection in the Aesthetic Regime: Butterfly Lovers and All-Female Yueju Through the Political Rollercoaster in the PRC. In Journal of Homosexuality (USA).
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