Lily Cho

Professor Lily Cho’s research focuses on diasporic subjectivity within the fields of cultural studies, postcolonial literature and theory, and Asian North American and Canadian literature. She co-edited Human Rights and the Arts: Perspectives on Global Asia with Susan Henders (York, Political Science). This book rethinks the contexts and subjects of human rights by taking its lead from writers, artists, filmmakers and dramatists in Asia and the Asian diaspora. Her book, Eating Chinese: Culture on the Menu in Small Town Canada, examines the relationship between Chinese restaurants and Canadian culture. Her SSHRC-funded project, Mass Capture: Chinese Head Tax and the Making of Non-Citizens in Canada, focuses on Chinese Canadian head tax certificates known as “C.I. 9's.” These certificates mark one of the first uses of identification photography in Canada. Drawing from this archive, her research explores the relationship between citizenship, photography, and anticipation as a mode of agency. Her next project, funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant from 2020-2025, Asian Values: Fictions of Finance and Beautiful Money, explores diasporic movement and theories of value in postcolonial Asia.

Representative publications:

“Mass Capture: the making of non-citizens and the Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macau Residents.” Mobilities, Special issue: Migration Infrastructures and the Constitution of (Im)mobilities, 12.2 (2017): 188-98.

Human Rights and the Arts: Essays on Global Asia. Co-edited with Susan Henders. Published in the book series Global Encounters: Studies in Comparative Political Theory. Lexington: Rowan and Littlefield, 2014.

“The Passport: the Politics of Place of Birth.” Handbook of Mobilities. Eds. Peter Adey, David Bissell, Kevin Hannam, Peter Merriman and Mimi Sheller. London: Routledge, 2014. 335-344.

"Anticipating Citizenship: Chinese Head Tax Photographs." Feeling Photography. Eds. Elspeth Brown & Thy Phu. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014. 159-180.

Eating Chinese: Culture on the Menu in Small Town Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010.