Xinying Hu

Education

• Ph.D. Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University, 2010
• M.A. Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing, 1996
• B.A. Economics, Hebei University, Baoding, China, 1992

Biography

Xinying grew up in rural China and left her village at 18 to pursue her studies in cities. She obtained both a BA and a MA in Economics. It was her MA study in Labour Economics that took her on a journey to women’s work, migration, the global economy, and the labour movement. After working in Women’s Studies Institute of China for a few years, she moved to Canada to study in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University. She received her PhD in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at SFU in 2010. She has been teaching in the Labour Studies Program ever since. She is currently working on promoting Indigenous knowledge into Labour Studies’ teaching and learning.

Her areas of research interest include gender and work, globalization and labour migration, precarious labour, and the global labour movement and trade unionism. Her book China’s New Underclass: Paid Domestic Labour was published by Routledge in London. Her current research project is with the Canadian Association of University Teachers to map the landscape of university teaching-stream faculty through collective agreement analysis.

Publications

BOOKS

China’s New Underclass: Paid Domestic Labour (2011). London: Routledge.

BOOK CHAPTERS

“Childcare Policy Reform and Women’s Labour Force Participation in China”, in Yildiz Atasoy (ed.) Global Economic Crisis and the Politics of Diversity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) pp. 155-178.

Zhang, Y. and Hu, X. “Who Should be Responsible for Gender Mainstreaming”, in China Project Team of Enhancing Gender Mainstreaming Capacity among Member States of International Labour Organization (eds.) Enhancing Gender Mainstreaming Capacity Guide Manual, (Beijing: China Society Publishing House, 2004) pp. 69-80.

Media

“Opinion: University teachers face looming job cuts in B.C.: Anything to celebrate in a new school year?” In Vancouver Sun, September 8, 2025.

Community Engagement

Advisory Group of Canada-China Focus, a non-partisan space for conversations on critical issues related to Canada-China relations.

Core member, Asian Canadian Labour Alliance B.C.

Member, Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C.

Grants and funding

2026 Indigenous Cultural Awareness Training and Professional Development Grant, FASS, SFU. “Promoting Indigenous Knowledge in Labour Studies”

2026 Canadian Association of University Teachers project (2026) “Mapping the landscape of university teaching-stream faculty – collective agreement analysis”

2024-2025 Chinese-Canadian Faculty Project webinar series fund, Canadian Association of University Teachers, Canada-China Focus, and SFU Morgan Centre for Labour.