Wei (Windy) Zhao, "Home beyond the House: Transformation of Life, Place, and Tradition in Rural China"
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- Center for Global Studies
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- Tim Pollack
- tpollack@illinois.edu
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Wei (Windy) Zhao, "Home beyond the House: Transformation of Life, Place, and Tradition in Rural China"
Time: 12:00 pm, Tuesday, Oct 20, 2026
Location: Coble 306 and ZoomAbstract: In this talk, Professor Zhao will discuss her book, Home beyond the House: Transformation of Life, Place, and Tradition in Rural China. Drawing upon 610 photographs taken by residents of Yanxia along with in-depth interviews, the book argues that the meaning of home for rural residents extends beyond the physical boundary of a house and homestead. Instead, it is rooted in cultural traditions embraced by individuals and collectively shared by the community, including kinship structure, family-based economic practices, and an evolving relationship with the land where their families had lived for generations.
About the speaker: Wei (Windy) Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she earned a doctorate degree in Architecture. Zhao’s research focuses on the relationship between people and place in everyday buildings and landscapes. Specifically, Zhao works with underrepresented social groups, such as rural residents in China and Chinese communities in the United States, to examine interconnected issues of spatial justice, cultural diversity, identity, and social sustainability within the context of globalization and urbanization.