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Prof. LEUNG Shi-chi Daren 梁仕池

Research Assistant Professor

LEUNG Shi Chi Daren

Location: Room 117, Ho Sin Hang Building 何善衡樓117室

Phone: (852) 2616 7497

Fax: (852) 2572 5170

Email: [email protected]

Areas of Interest

  • Urban Commons
  • Critical Food Studies
  • Waste Management
  • More-than-human Ethnography
  • Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
  • Youth Culture
  • Bios

    Daren Shi-chi Leung is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies at Lingnan University. He earned his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the University of Sydney in 2021, where his doctoral thesis reached the final round for the prestigious Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Thesis Prize. Leung’s research primarily centers on the material politics of food and waste, exploring their relationships with technology, history, and community within China and beyond. His scholarly contributions have been featured in academic journals, including Cultural Studies, Peasant Studies, and China Perspectives. Leung is elected as a regional representative of Asia on the board of the Association for Cultural Studies (2022-2026). He is currently working on an RGC-funded project about Waste Commons that integrates research, teaching, and community engagement to address the food waste challenge in Hong Kong.

  • Education

    PhD in Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney

    MPhil in Humanities, Hong Kong Baptist University

    BA in Cultural Studies, Lingnan University

    AD in Sociology, Hong Kong Community College

  • Selected Publication
    • [Manuscript under preparation] Excremental Modernity: Human Waste, Food and (Un-)Hygiene in China.
    • [Under review] “Composting (in) the STS Classroom: Unlearning Food Waste through Service-Learning in Hong Kong Context”. Science, Technology, & Human Values.
    • [Under review] “A Care Continuum: Food Waste Challenge in Hong Kong and Its Narration in Action”. European Journal of Cultural Studies.
    • [Under review] “Waste Commons on the Move”. Cultural Studies.
    • 2024. “Shit in Our Time: An Unsettling Epoch of Metabolic Disturbance”. Lateral 13(1). https://doi.org/10.25158/L13.1.X.
    • 2024. Final Research Report on Labor Conditions in the Hong Kong Film and Television Industry 2024 (香港影視業勞工狀況終期研究報告2024). Institute of Policy Studies and Centre for Cultural Research and Development, Lingnan University. (co-authored with Pun et al.) https://doi.org/10.14793/ccrd_report_06
    • 2023. Interim Research Report on Labor Conditions in the Film and Television Industry 2023 (影視業勞工狀況中期研究報告2023). Institute of Policy Studies and Centre for Cultural Research and Development, Lingnan University. (co-authored with Tang et al.)  https://doi.org/10.14793/ccrd_report_05
    • 2023. “Transforming critical agrarian studies: Solidarity, scholar-activism and emancipatory agendas in and from the Global South”. Peasant Studies 50(2): 758-786. (co-author with Aguiar et al.) https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2023.2176759
    • 2023. How low is the minimum wage? Report on the employment dilemma of the new generation of the poor (最低工資有幾低? 貧窮新一代的就業困境報告). Institute of Policy Studies and Centre for Cultural Research and Development, Lingnan University. (co-authored with Chui et al.) https://doi.org/10.14793/ccrd_report_04
    • 2022. How long are working hours? Report on employment and poverty of the new generation of the poor(工時有幾長? 貧窮新一代的就業與貧窮報告). Institute of Policy Studies and Centre for Cultural Research and Development, Lingnan University. (co-authored with Pun et al.) https://doi.org/10.14793/ccrd_report_03
    • 2022. “Reviving Community Agrarianism in Post-socialist China”. In Victoria Stead and Melinda Hinkson (eds), Beyond Global Food Supply Chains: Crisis, Disruption, Regeneration. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3155-0_6
    • 2021. “Agriculture conviviale: évolution du militantisme alimentaire et agricole en Chine du Sud”. Perspectives chinoises, 2021(2): 33-43. (in French)
    • 2021. “Convivial Agriculture: Evolving Food and Farming Activism in South China”. China Perspectives 2021(2): 29-38. https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.11674
    • 2019. “The Dilemma of Mobility: On the Question of Youth Voluntourism in Times of Precarity”. Cultural Studies 33: 915-943. (co-authored with J. Erni). https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2019.1660691
    • 2017. “An Edible Speculation”. In K. Johnston and S. Pratt (eds), A speculative field guide to Blackwattle Bay. Sydney, NSW: The Sustainable Fish Lab, University of Sydney.
    • 2017. “Sugarcoated Racism: Managing Racialized Anxieties in Hong Kong Television Drama.” In John N. Erni (ed.) Feeling Ethnic: Visuality, Emotions, and Minority Culture. London: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53861-6_6
  • Research Grants
    • PI, “Redefining Waste: An Ethnographic Exploration of Socio-Technological Transformations in Human Waste Recycling Practices in Conghua District of Guangzhou” (01/01/2024-31/12/2024). Direct Grant, LU Research Committee, Lingnan University (LUFRG101240): HKD100,000.
    • PI, “A Science and Technology Study of Human Waste in Post-socialist China” (01/05/2023-30/10/2024). Faculty Research Grant. LU Research Committee, Lingnan University (LUFRG101912): HKD84,654.
    • Research Consultant, “Agricultural History and Social Economy of South Lantau Island” (01/09/2022-29/02/2024). Land Education Foundation (PI). Lantau Conservation Fund, HKSAR (RE-2021-09): HKD1,757,946.
    • PI, “Youth Employment and Poverty: A critical investigation of youth creative slashers in Hong Kong” (27/03/2023-31/03/2024). Oxfam Hong Kong (contract research): HKD$615,000.
    • PI, “‘Waste Commons’ in Motion via Hong Kong’s Light Rail Loop: Exploring the Multiple Routes for Community-Oriented Food Waste Management” (01/01/2023-30/21/2025). Early Career Scheme (ECS), Research Grants Council (RGC), HKSAR (RGCECS23602622): HKD465,000.
    • Co-PI, “Comparative Cultures of Care: A Converging Interdisciplinary Focus and Application” (01/10/2022-31/03/2025). John Erni (PI). Central Reserve Allocation Committee (CRAC) Fund, Education University of Hong Kong (Project no. 04A34): HKD5,390,000.
    • PI, “Is there a way out of poverty? A critical investigation of youth poverty and employment in Hong Kong” (1/03/22-28/02/23). Oxfam Hong Kong (contract research): HKD$200,000.
    • PI, “A Primary Study of Community-Based Practices of Food Waste in the Northwest Area of New Territories” (01/01/2022-30/06/2023). Faculty Research Grant, Lingnan University (LUFRG101895): HKD44,743.
    • Co-Pi, Creating urban commons with the youth: A pilot training scheme (01/11/2021-31/21/2022), LU Research Committee, Lingnan University: HKD81,800.
  • Invited Presentation
    • “Staying with the Trouble of Feces: Metabolic Disturbance in the Chinese Context”. A Gathered Dialogue: Eco-afterlives and Slow Hope, Hong Kong Education University: 13-4 May 2024.
    • “Performing the materiality of food waste in the arts of transience”. Performing Care and Carelessness Conference, University of Otago, Dunedin: 14-16 February 2024
    • ‘I Have Never Experienced Food Waste in This Way’: A New Approach to Community Engagement and Caring Techniques’. Hong Kong 2023 Humanities Conference on Comparative Cultures of Care, Hong Kong Education University: 5-6 November 2023.
    • “Rethinking Hygiene and Environmental Problems”. Association for Cultural Studies Summer Institute—De-colonization in the 21st Century: Aug 2023.
    • ‘‘The Commoning of Food Waste in Post-colonial Hong Kong”. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Conference: Ahmedabad, India, July 2023.
    • “Mao’s Toilet: The Politics of Feeding the People in Socialist China (the 1950s-70s)”. Sci-Tech Asia Webinar, June 2023.
    • “The Rise of the Commons Movement in Hong Kong”. Village Commoning Symposium, University of Hong Kong: May 2023.
  • Public Engagement

    “Chinese agriculture history: the arts of human waste (中國農業發展史：糞土不污，身土不二？)”. China Week 中國文化周2021, Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, 7 July 2021. (an invited lecture given to high school students, in Cantonese)

    “China-Australia Agricultural Conflict behind New Cold-war Geopolitics (北京為何對澳洲農業亮劍？地緣政治背後的中澳農貿難題)”. The Initium, 9 June 2020. (in Chinese)

    “I eat therefore I think: How eating affects the personal and the social (我食故我思)”. Cantonese Food Forum, Guangzhou, China, 20 May 2018. (guest speaker, in Mandarin)

    “How people intimately connect with food (我們與食物的親密連結)”. Vegplanet China素食星球, Guangzhou, China, 19 May 2018. (guest speaker, in Mandarin)

    “All About Us – Stories of the Youth in the Shadow with Illumination”. The House Program Book of 21st ifva Festival, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2016. (in English and Chinese)

    “Report says Hong Kong is at a record low level of happiness”, CGTN (America), 25 Feb 2015. (interview, in English)

    “The origin of ‘bloody palm’ on Chinese Palace’s wall: the protests in Germany and Brazil”, HK01, 9 January 2017. (interview, in Cantonese)

    “The Umbrella Movement—Student and Faculty”, interviewed by Toby Miller, Cultural Studies Podcast, 4 March 2015. (interview, in English)

View CV

View Lingnan Scholars Profile