I am a final-year PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the University of Queensland, Australia. My doctoral research investigates the intricate ways in which young Uzbek men navigate changing social norms and individual aspirations, as they perceive and practice everyday masculinities in the capital city of Tashkent. This project, based on 13 months of fieldwork conducted from 2021 to 2022 during COVID-19, aims to unravel the complex negotiations and strategies employed by these men in constructing masculine identities to understand post-Soviet transitions.
My research interests and ethnographic experience revolve around gender and health issues in Central Asia and China, particularly in Uzbekistan and China's Xinjiang UAR and Guangdong. Prior to my doctoral studies, I worked as a research assistant and coordinator at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Project China. During my two years of work, I conducted ethnographic research to examine the social and ethical implications of HIV cure, primarily among men who have sex with men, people living with HIV, and people who inject drugs in Guangzhou, China.
As part of my doctoral research, I have actively leveraged digital methods, with TikTok playing a crucial role in recruitment and data collection. Additionally, I am proficient in several languages, including Mandarin, Uzbek, and Uyghur.
Personal Website: https://www.yangzhao-anthropology.com/
Publications
Book
Stahl, Garth and Zhao, Yang eds. (2023). Migratory men: place, transnationalism and masculinities. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003353232
Book Chapter
Stahl, Garth and Zhao, Yang (2023). Introduction. Migratory men: place, transnationalism and masculinities. (pp. 1-12) edited by Garth Stahl and Yang Zhao. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003353232
Journal Articles
Zhao, Yang (2024). Dressing masculinities: muted colours, aesthetic citizenship and nation-building in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Citizenship Studies, 28 (1), 1-16. doi: 10.1080/13621025.2024.2348869
Zhao,Yang (2024). The grass is always greener? Unpacking Uzbek migration to Japan. Central Asian Survey, 43 (2), 1-3. doi: 10.1080/02634937.2024.2312169
Zhao, Yang (2024). TikTok and researcher positionality: considering the methodological and ethical implications of an experimental digital ethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23. doi: 10.1177/16094069231221374
Zhao, Yang (2023). Chopping carrots and becoming ‘real’ men: Uzbek boys, household work and the reproduction of masculinities in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. Gender and Education, ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), 1-16. doi: 10.1080/09540253.2023.2263024
Tan, Rayner K. J., Wu, Dan, Day, Suzanne, Zhao, Yang, Larson, Heidi J., Sylvia, Sean, Tang, Weiming and Tucker, Joseph D. (2022). Digital approaches to enhancing community engagement in clinical trials. npj Digital Medicine, 5 (1) 37, 37. doi: 10.1038/s41746-022-00581-1
Stahl, Garth and Zhao, Yang (2022). Filial obligations, affect and masculinities: Vietnamese-Australian young men being and becoming good sons. NORMA, 17 (3), 1-17. doi: 10.1080/18902138.2022.2040287
Zhao, Yang (2022). Breadwinning, migration, and nation-building: a critical scoping review of men, masculinities, and social change in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. NORMA, 17 (2), 1-19. doi: 10.1080/18902138.2022.2026106
Stahl, Garth and Zhao, Yang (2022). Producing place-based masculine subjectivities: aspirations for recognition and status among socially mobile Vietnamese-Australian young men. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 43 (3), 1-17. doi: 10.1080/07256868.2022.2010680
Smith, M. Kumi, Cao, Bolin, Fu, Rong, Zhao, Yang, Liu, Chuncheng, Lazard, Allison J. and Tucker, Joseph D. (2020). Leveraging crowdsourcing for human immunodeficiency virus testing posters: a visual content analysis and cognitive responses among Chinese men who have sex with men. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 47 (9), 580-586. doi: 10.1097/olq.0000000000001213
Li, Katherine T., Huang, Wenting, Tang, Weiming, Wu, Feng, Zhao, Yang, Wu, Dan, Yang, Fan, Zhang, Tiange P., Forastiere, Laura, Alexander, Marcus, Kumar, Navin and Tucker, Joseph D. (2020). A Secondary Mixed Methods Analysis of a Pay-it-Forward Gonorrhea/Chlamydia Testing Program Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in China. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 47 (6), 395-401. doi: 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000001161
Zhao, Yang, Day, Suzanne, Yang, Nancy S., Bao, Huanyu, Li, Linghua, Mathews, Allison and Tucker, Joseph D. (2020). Crowdsourcing contests to facilitate community engagement in HIV cure research: a qualitative evaluation of facilitators and barriers of participation. BMC Public Health, 20 (1) 67, 67. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-8185-z
Zhao, Yang, Fitzpatrick, Thomas, Wan, Bin, Day, Suzanne, Mathews, Allison and Tucker, Joseph D. (2019). Forming and implementing community advisory boards in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review. BMC Medical Ethics, 20 (1) 73. doi: 10.1186/s12910-019-0409-3
Shen, Karen, Yang, Nancy S., Huang, Wenting, Fitzpatrick, Thomas S., Tang, Weiming, Zhao, Yang, Wang, Yehua, Li, Linghua and Tucker, Joseph D. (2019). A crowdsourced intervention to decrease hepatitis B stigma in men who have sex with men in China: a cohort study. Journal of Viral Hepatitis, 27 (2) jvh.13213, 135-142. doi: 10.1111/jvh.13213
Day, Suzanne, Blumberg, Meredith, Vu, Thi, Zhao, Yang, Rennie, Stuart and Tucker, Joseph D. (2018). Stakeholder engagement to inform HIV clinical trials: a systematic review of the evidence. Journal of the International Aids Society, 21 (S7) e25174, e25174. doi: 10.1002/jia2.25174
Tucker, Joseph D., Zhang, Alice and Zhao, Yang (2018). HIV Cure Research Crowdsourcing: An Author Response. Aids Research and Human Retroviruses, 34 (1), 2-2. doi: 10.1089/aid.2017.0294
Zhang, Alice, Pan, Xin, Wu, Feng, Zhao, Yang, Hu, Fengyu, Li, Linghua, Cai, Weiping and Tucker, Joseph D. (2018). What would an HIV cure mean to you? Qualitative analysis from a crowdsourcing contest in Guangzhou, China. Aids Research and Human Retroviruses, 34 (1), 80-87. doi: 10.1089/aid.2017.0188
Conference Papers
Zhao, Yang (2023). 'Are you circumcised?': Purity and the reproduction of the hierarchy of masculinities among young Uzbek men living in post-Soviet Uzbekistan. Central Eurasian Studies Society Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, 19-22 October 2023.
Zhao, Yang (2023). Doing masculinities through wearing black: self-making, masculinity, and nationalism for Uzbek men in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Beauty and the State: Bodily Self-Making, Citizenship and the Politics of Belonging, Berlin, Germany, 19-21 July 2023.
Zhao, Yang (2022). Doing digital ethnography of performative masculinities in Uzbekistan as a Chinese TikTok video creator during COVID-19: methodological and ethical implications. Australian Anthropological Society Conference 2022, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 23-26 November 2022.
Zhao, Yang (2019). Making a responsible self: masculinities, responsibilization, and moralities in contemporary Uzbekistan. University of Queensland Social Sciences Postgraduate Students Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 1 November 2019.
Zhao, Yang, Day, Suzanne, Yang, Nancy, Bao, Huanyu, Li, Linghua, Mathews, Allison and Tucker, Joseph D. (2019). Crowdsourcing contests to facilitate community engagement in HIV cure research: a qualitative evaluation of facilitators and barriers of participation. 4th Asia Pacific AIDS and Co-infections Conference, Hong Kong, 27-29 June 2019.
Li, Katherine, Yang, Fan, Huang, Wenting, Zhao, Yang, Wu, Dan, Tang, Weiming, Wu, Feng, Yang, Ligang, Zhang, Tiange, Muessig, Kate and Tucker, Joseph (2019). A mixed-methods analysis of a pay-it-forward gonorrhea/chlamydia testing program among men who have sex with men in China. STI & HIV 2019 World Congress, Vancouver, Canada, 14-17 July 2019. London, United Kingdom: BMJ Publishing Group. doi: 10.1136/sextrans-2019-sti.232
Zhao, Yang, Fitzpatrick, Thomas, Wan, Bin, Day, Suzanne, Mathews, Allison and Tucker, Joseph D. (2018). Community advisory boards in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review. International AIDS Conference 2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 23-27 July 2018.
Zhao, Yang, Fitzpatrick, Thomas, Wan, Bin, Day, Suzanne, Mathews, Allison and Tucker, Joseph D (2018). Community advisory boards and research ethics in low-income and middle-income countries: a scoping review. The Lancet-CAMS Health Summit, 2018, Beijing, China, 27-28 October 2018. London, United Kingdom: The Lancet Publishing Group. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(18)32671-0
Zhao, Yang, Fitzpatrick, Thomas, Wan, Bin, Day, Suzanne, Mathews, Allison and Tucker, Joseph D. (2018). Community advisory boards and research ethics in low-income and middle-income countries: a scoping review. Lancet-CAMS Health Summit, Beijing, China, 27-28 October, 2018. London, United Kingdom: The Lancet Publishing Group. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32671-0
Zhao, Yang (2017). ‘Have more halal food!’: the eating and drinking strategies of Uyghur Minkaohan students in contemporary Xinjiang, China. Pleasure, Providence and Purity: An International Conference on Food and Drink in Islamic Societies, Hong Kong, 27-28 April 2017.
Zhao, Yang (2017). Being Uyghur: an ethnography of a Uyghur language-training center in Xinjiang, China. The 9th Annual CUHK Anthropology Postgraduate Student Forum, Hong Kong, 20-21 January 2017.
Newspaper Article
Zhao, Yang (2017, 02 01). 央視春晚首次演出新疆小品，為何惹惱新疆人？ Initium Media
Theses
Zhao, Yang (2024). Changing masculinities and moral landscapes among young Uzbek men in Uzbekistan. PhD Thesis, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/2728e70
Zhao, Yang (2017). Parallel worlds of language: an ethnography of Uyghur and Mandarin language use in contemporary Xinjiang, China. M.A. Thesis, Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing Hua University.